Development of UV-cured plastic scintillators having high scintillation light yields

We have developed UV-cured plastic scintillators having high scintillation light yields. We prepared the samples with different concentrations of photoinitiator and fluorescent molecules. M − 211B as a UV resin, Irgacure TPO as a photoinitiator, DPO, and POPOP as fluorescent molecules were used. The emission peaks in the photoluminescence and scintillation spectra at approximately 420 nm are attributed to the emission of POPOP used as the wavelength shifters. The UV irradiation time influenced the scintillation light yields of the scintillators. The scintillation light yields of the samples with high DPO concentration were high. The scintillation light yield of the UV-cured plastic scintillator having DPO at 37 wt% and POPOP at 0.76 wt% was 9100 photons/MeV, which was the highest among those of the prepared samples. This yield was higher than the highest scintillation light yields in previous studies by 14 %, and 88 % of commercially available plastic scintillators for high-energy physics experiments. •We developed UV-cured plastic scintillators having high scintillation light yields.•We investigated the optimal compositions and the fabrication process of UV-cured plastic scintillators.•The light yield of 9100 photons/MeV was achieved.