Progress in Polysiloxane Scintillators for Radiation Detection

Plastic organic scintillators are a popular choice for high energy physics experiments, medical physics detectors, and national security applications but their lack of radiation hardness and stability can limit their use. Plastic scintillators based on a polysiloxane matrix are radiation hard and temperature stable, but only recently have progressed to compete with off-the-shelf organic scintillators (Eljen EJ200, EJ276) in light output and capability to discriminate their pulse response based on the incident radiation interaction type. Such characteristics are shown in polysiloxane scintillators fabricated by modifying commerically available resins from Shin-Etsu and Wacker to improve fluorophore solubility and shelf life. We report on the latest radiation detection and material characterization results from this work in modifying commercially available materials for use as polysiloxane scintillators. We show that our samples have demonstrated efficient pulse shape discrimination and highlight their suitability to emerging radiation detection challenges.