Organic scintillator systems and optical fibers containing polycyclic aromatic compounds
AssigneeNanoptics, Inc.
InventorsJacob R. Tymianski, James K. Walker
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Abstract
A class of polycyclic aromatic compounds containing at least two fused rings, is used to produce very bright liquid or plastic scintillators. When a member of this class, such as pyrene, is added at high concentration to a liquid or polymeric organic solvent, scintillation light output may be increased by between 40 and 100% as compared to existing commercial scintillating compositions. These new bright scintillator compositions can be used in scintillating optical fibers and plates made therefrom. These new scintillating optical fiber plates are particularly useful for diagnostic medical X-ray detection, and superior spatial resolution particle detection and measurement of high energy particles and radiation.
Claims45
A scintillator system for detecting incident penetrating radiation, comprising:
- A) a scintillator composition for converting the incident penetrating radiation to visible light, comprising:
- 1) a matrix material;
- and dissolved therein,
- 2) a polycyclic aromatic compound which is an alkyl substituted naphthalene, aryl substituted naphthalene, or a compound containing at least three fused rings, wherein the polycyclic aromatic compound is present at about 5, or more, percent of the scintillator weight;
- and
- 3) 0 to about 3% of the scintillator weight of a fluorescent material;
- and
- B) a detection system for recording the visible light.
A scintillator system for detecting incident penetrating radiation, comprising:
- A) a scintillator composition for converting the incident penetrating radiation to visible light, comprising:
- 1) a polymeric matrix material;
- and dissolved therein,
- 2) naphthalene which is present at about 15, or more, percent of the scintillator weight;
- and
- 3) 0 to about 3% of the scintillator weight of a fluorescent material;
- and
- B) a detection system for recording the visible light.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.