Organic Glass Scintillators (OGS) are an exciting class of radiation detection materials that exhibit noteworthy physical and scintillation characteristics. Organic Glass Scintillators are based on a stable, amorphous, small-molecule host matrix that contains performance-enhancing additives such as wavelength shifters. The configuration of Organic Glass Scintillators provides a unique set of properties that combines attributes of single crystals, plastic scintillators, and liquid scintillators, respectively. The Organic Glass Scintillators properties include scalable production via melt-casting, scintillation light yields and pulse-shape discrimination properties that are comparable to crystalline trans-stilbene, and isotropic optical and mechanical properties that are reminiscent of plastic scintillators. The unique properties of organic glass allow for casting into molds and complex shapes such as bars, cylinders, cubes and pixelated arrays.
Organic Glass can also be blended with commercially available optical-grade plastics to create plastic scintillators with pulse-shape discrimination capabilities. Plastic scintillators are a mainstay detector material for nuclear physics experiments around the globe due to their low cost and easy-to-use form factor. However, it is extremely difficult for plastic scintillators to discriminate between different types of ionizing radiation—an essential tool for many nuclear physics experiments. In fact, there is only one product available on the market with discrimination capability, but it suffers from aging and manufacturing issues that prevent its broad adoption. Organic Glass was engineered for additive manufacturing and high oxidative/radiation stability, allowing it to be a perfect scintillator material for commercial plastic manufacturing. Blueshift Optics is currently finalizing its formulations with organic glass and will have plastic scintillators for sale soon.
