Temperature dependence of plastic scintillators

Abstract

Plastic scintillator detectors have been studied as dosimeters, since they provide a cost-effective alternative to conventional ionization chambers. On the other hand, several articles have reported undesired response dependencies on beam energy and temperature, which enhances the necessity to determine appropriate correction factors. In this work, we studied the light yield temperature dependency of four plastic scintillators (BCF-10, BCF-60, BC-404 and RP-200A) and two clear fibers (BCF-98 and SK-80). Measurements were made using a 50 kVp X-ray beam to produce the scintillation and/or radioluminescence signal. The 0 to 40 degrees celsius range was scanned for each scintillator, and temperature coefficients obtained.