Review of Hybrid and Opaque Scintillator Technologies Advancing Neutrino and Dark Matter Detectors

Abstract

Organic liquid scintillators are used since several decades, especially in neutrino physics. They excel at the detection of low-energy particles where energy and timing information is required. Organic liquid scintillators have advantages such as high light yield, radio purity, cost effectiveness, and more. However, they also exhibit disadvantages, most prominently a lack of vertex resolution and particle identification. Various novel ideas have emerged over the course of the last decade to improve the performance of organic liquid scintillators. Among them are most prominently hybrid and opaque scintillators. In this proceedings, these novel scintillators are reviewed and their current applications in the research fields of neutrino and dark matter physics are illustrated.