Characterization of Polyvinyl Toluene (PVT) scintillators for fast neutron imaging

Polyvinyl Toluene (PVT) based plastic scintillators with varying dimensions and fluors have been characterized in terms of relative light output and spatial resolution. Scintillators were exposed to fast neutrons (~2 MeV), and images were obtained with a setup consisting of an EMCCD camera, a mirror and a light-tight apparatus. Among scintillators with 2.0% Flrpic and 10.16 cm (4 inch) diameter, the 10.5-mm thick scintillator featured the highest light output while 3.0- mm provided the best spatial resolution. The deuterated 3.0-mm thick scintillator doped with 2.0% Flrpic showed a worse performance in terms of both light output and spatial resolution compared to that of undeuterated scintillator with the same thickness but doped with 2.0% X-Flrpic. This study reveals the effects of presence of deuterium in PVT, the thickness of scintillator, and the fluor on the light output and spatial resolution of plastic scintillator.