Characterization of optical photon transport in Long Plastic Scintillators
S. Sharma, N. Gupta, S. K. Kundu, A. K. Venadan, L. Kaplon, P. Moskal On behalf of the J-PET Collaboration
abstract
Plastic scintillators have long been used in nuclear and particle physics experiments as cost-effective detectors [1]. The longer attenuation length for light transmission makes
them ideal for applications requiring a larger field-of-view (FOV) [2]. The Jagiellonian PET (J-PET) collaboration has pioneered their use to build the first plastic scintillator-
based PET scanner, which is composed of 50 cm long plastic scintillators [3,4]. With the successful demonstration of modules constructed based on J-PET technology in both
medical [5,6] and fundamental physics [7,8,9,10], the collaboration now aims to construct standalone detection modules using even longer scintillators. Since light propagation
in long plastic scintillators depends strongly on the interaction position and direction, it is required to perform a thorough study on scintillator light yield, light attenuation during
the transport along the strip, variation in the time of detected photons, and how uniformly the light is collected [11]. Furthermore, the influence of surface reflectivity also plays
a crucial role in shaping the detector response [12]. All these characteristic properties of the scintillator directly impact both the timing and spatial resolution [13], which are key
parameters to optimize the overall performance, particularly when signals are read out only from the ends of the scintillator.
