Plastic-Crystal Composite Scintillator for Multi-Signature Radiation Detection

We propose to develop the cost effective plastic-crystal composite scintillator that can enable multi-mode detection of gamma rays, fast neutrons, and thermal neutrons. To enable innovation beyond the current state-of-the-art, the proposed easy-to-fabricate-and-integrate composite scintillator will utilize the miniature crystals of CLYC elpasolite embedded into a plastic scintillator framework. Digital electronics will provide the ability to log time-stamped, list-mode-event data enabling neutron and gamma energy spectroscopy. This detector will provide gamma-and-neutron measurements with the isotope identification using the single sensor thus helping realize full potential of first responder operations.