SCINTILLATING OPTICAL FIBER ARRAYS

MANY SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS AND RADIATION DETECTION TECHNIQUES REQUIRE LOCALIZATION OF CHARGED PARTICLE TRACKS. SCINTILLATING OPTICAL FIBER ARRAYS (BOTH TWO DIMENSIONAL ANDVOLUMETRIC) ARE DEVELOPED AND INITIALLY TESTED WHICH CAN SERVE AS THE PRIMARY DETECTOR IN CHARGED PARTICLE TRACK IMAGING AND DETECTION SYSTEMS. IMAGES OF LOW ENERGY PROTON AND RELATIVISTIC NEON, MANGANESE, AND GOLD NUCLEI TRACKS AREOBTAINED USING A BUNDLE OF THE SCINTILLATING OPTICAL FIBER AND THE DETECTOR CONCEPT APPEARS PROMISING. HOWEVER NEW TECHNIQUES AS WELL AS SIGNIFICANT ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND REFINEMENT OF THE PRESENT TECHNIQUES ARE REQUIRED TO SUCCESSFULLY SCALE UP TO A LARGE SCINTILLATOR FIBER DETECTORWHICH IS GENERALLY USEFUL FOR HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING APPLICATIONS. THIS PROJECT IS DIRECTED TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCINTILLATING OPTICAL FIBERS AND FIBER ARRAYSWITH ADEQUATE DIMENSIONAL UNIFORMITY AND LIGHT TRANSMISSION SO THAT SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF 100 MICRONS CAN BE OBTAINED INLARGE DETECTOR ARRAYS.