Small-molecule organic glass scintillators for improved neutron detector arrays

Detecting fast neutrons in the presence of gamma-rays is not only important to the advancement of nuclear physics at national laboratories like FRIB but also critical in various national security applications like portal monitors and cargo scanners- Unfortunately, stilbene, the scintillator with the highest capability for neutron/gamma discrimination is still very expensive, making it difficult either to design optimum neutron detectors for the national facilities or to even consider deploying portal or cargo monitors with this capability- Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories recently developed an organic glass scintillator that appears to provide superior properties to stilbene and that can also be cast into final shapes, which offers the potential for a stilbene replacement material at a much lower price- Our overall approach is: first, to further characterize and validate the material's performance; second, to address issues associated with scaling production from laboratory to commercial scale; and, third, to transfer the technology into commercial production-