SCINTILLATOR AND RADIATION DETECTOR INCLUDING THE SCINTILLATOR

摘要

A radiation detector can include a solid organic/plastic scintillator that enables neutron and gamma interactions to be readily distinguished via pulse-shape discrimination. Embodiments make use of a scintillator including a polymer matrix with a dispersed scintillation material exhibiting thermally activated delayed fluorescence. The scintillation material can include an organic luminescent material that is free of heavy metals and in which excited triplet states are efficiently promoted into excited singlet states by thermal energy, the excited singlet states then generating a delayed fluorescence when decaying to ground state. As a result, the scintillation material, when exposed to ionizing radiation, can produce a combination of prompt and delayed fluorescence sufficient to enable neutron and gamma interactions to be readily distinguished via pulse-shape discrimination techniques.

主权项

1. A scintillator comprising:
a plastic matrix; and a first scintillation material including metal-free organic luminescent compound in which excited triplet states are promoted into excited singlet states by thermal energy and wherein the excited singlet states generates luminescence at a first wavelength when the excited singlet states decay to ground state, wherein the plastic matrix is doped with molecules of the first scintillation material, the plastic matrix comprises a plastic transparent to light of the first wavelength, and wherein the first scintillation material has an internal fluorescence efficiency that is greater than 25%.