Radiation Hard Plastic Scintillators for a New Generation of Particle Detectors

Dettmann, Makena A.; Herrig, V.; Maldonis, Jason J.; Neuhaus, J.; Shrestha, Dilip; Rajbhandari, Pravakar P.; Thune, Z.; Been, M.O.; Martinez-Szewczyk, M.; Khristenko, V.; Onel, Y.; Akgun, U.

doi:10.1088/1748-0221/12/03/p03017

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The radiation tolerance of plastic scintillators varies with the base polymer used as the matrix for the luminescent molecules and can be optimized to the environment. For example, polysilozana and poly(vinyl toluene) demonstrated negligible changes in scintillation after 400 kGy and 800 kGy of proton irradiation respectively [177,178], and polystyrene presented a 10% decrease in light yield after 34 kGy of gamma irradiation [179].…”

Section: High Total Radiation Exposure (500 Gy-70 Kgy)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of printable, flexible and tissue equivalent materials for ionizing radiation detection

Posar

Petasecca

Griffith

2021

Flex. Print. Electron.

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Advances in flexible and printable electronics have paved the way for large-area, and low-cost wearable electronics that will revolutionize the way we detect and monitor ionizing radiation. The improvements to early detection and widespread use of treatment procedures of tumors and other illnesses using ionizing radiation have led to the rapid increase in the yearly dose exposure to the public. Therefore, safety organizations must introduce stricter quality assurance measures to ensure the safe delivery of the total dose to the patient—only achievable using live monitoring systems, named in-vivo dosimetry. Such systems would also benefit the safety of professional personnel employed in areas that encounter higher exposures of ionizing radiation including nuclear plants, space exploration, flight staff, and research beamline facilities. However, the current real-time detectors employ expensive and rigid high-Z materials including silicon, germanium, and cadmium telluride, that suffer substantial limitations in monitoring the dose deposited in biological tissue and conforming to the complex contours of the human body over large areas. We provide insights into the innovative materials capable of solution-based device fabrication onto flexible substrates with foreseeable avenues towards low-cost large-area printing techniques. This discussion will also review and identify the advantages and existing capabilities of tissue-equivalent materials in the detection of ionizing radiation as the ideal materials for in-vivo dosimetry. Finally, the radiation tolerance of organic materials is outlined to demonstrate that extensive investigations are still required before their utilization as radiation detectors.

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Section: High Total Radiation Exposure (500 Gy-70 Kgy)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of printable, flexible and tissue equivalent materials for ionizing radiation detection

Posar

Petasecca

Griffith

2021

Flex. Print. Electron.

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“…In the past, radiation damage to plastic scintillators, such as the RP400, has been extensively characterized for high energy physics applications due to their low cost, mechanical plasticity and fast decay time. It has been proven that the plastic scintillator RP400, adopted in this work, has a relatively low variation of the light yield due to radiation damage up to 10 kGy (less than 8%) of accumulated dose by irradiation with a cobalt-60 gamma source 45,46 . So, in order to establish the stability of the combination of an RP400 scintillator with an organic photodetector, we tested the response variation of two OPDs by irradiating them with a cobalt-60 gamma source (dose rate = 1.2 kGy/h) to a Total Irradiation Dose (TID) of 40 kGy.…”

Section: Radiation Hardness Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been proven that the plastic scintillator RP400, adopted in this work, has a relatively low variation of the light yield due to radiation damage up to 10 kGy (<8%) of accumulated dose by irradiation with a cobalt-60 gamma source. 45,46 So, in order to establish the stability of the combination of an RP400 scintillator with an organic photodetector, we tested the response variation of two OPDs by irradiating them with a cobalt-60 gamma source (dose rate = 1.2 kGy/h) to a total irradiation dose (TID) of 40 kGy. During irradiation, the photodetectors were embedded in a plexiglass holder with a 1.5cm-thick window between the gamma source and sample surface.…”

Section: B Radiation Hardness Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of an organic semiconductor diode for dosimetry in radiotherapy

et al. 2020

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The development of novel detectors for dosimetry in advanced radiotherapy modalities requires materials that have a water-equivalent response to ionizing radiation such that characterization of radiation beams can be performed without the need for complex calibration procedures and correction factors. Organic semiconductors are potentially an ideal technology in fabricating devices for dosimetry due to tissue-equivalence, mechanical flexibility and relatively cheap manufacturing cost. The response of a commercial organic photodetector (OPD), coupled to a plastic scintillator, to ionizing radiation from a linear accelerator and orthovoltage x-ray tube has been characterized to assess its potential as a dosimeter for radiotherapy. The radiation hardness of the OPD has also been investigated to demonstrate its longevity for such applications.Methods: Radiation hardness measurements were achieved by observing the response of the OPD to the visible spectrum and 70 keV x-rays after pre-exposure to 40 kGy of ionizing radiation. The response of a pre-irradiated OPD to 6 MV photons from a linear accelerator in reference conditions was compared to a non-irradiated OPD with respect to direct and indirect (RP400 plastic scintillator) detection mechanisms. Dose-rate dependence of the OPD was measured by varying the surface-to-source distance between 90 cm and 300 cm. Energy dependence was characterized from 29.5 keV to 129 2 keV with an x-ray tube. The percentage depth dose (PDD) curves were measured from 0.5 cm to 20 cm and compared to an ionization chamber. Results:The OPD sensitivity to visible light showed substantial degradation of the broad 450nm to 600 nm peak from the donor after irradiation to 40 kGy. After irradiation, the spectral shape has a dominant absorbance peak at 370 nm, as the acceptor better withstood radiation damage. Its response to x-rays stabilized to 30% after 35 kGy, with a 0.5% difference between 770 Gy increments. The OPD exhibited reproducible detection of ionizing radiation when coupled with a scintillator. Indirect detection showed a linear response from 25 cGy to 500 cGy and constant response to dose-rates from 0.31 Gy/pulse to 3.4 x10 -4 Gy/pulse. However, without the scintillator, response increased by 100% at low dose rates.Energy independence between 100 keV and 1.2 MeV advocates their use as a dosimeter without beam correction factors.A dependence on the scintillator thickness used during a comparison of the PDD to the ionizing chamber was identified.A 1 mm thick scintillator coupled with the OPD demonstrated the best agreement of ±3%. Conclusions:The response of OPDs to ionizing radiation has been characterized, showing promising use as a dosimeter when coupled with a plastic scintillator. The mechanisms of charge transport and trapping within organic materials varies for visible and ionizing radiation, due to differing properties for direct and indirect detection mechanisms and observing a substantial decrease of sensitivity to the visible spectrum after 40 kGy. This study proved that OP...

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“…Plastic scintillators, such as the one used in this study, have been extensively characterized for high energy physics applications and proven to exhibit high radiation hardness, with less than 8% variation in their light yields up to an irradiation of 10 kGy. [ 40–41 ] Therefore, the P3HT:o‐IDTBR photodetector response was characterized independently after irradiation with a cobalt‐60 gamma source up to a total irradiation dose of 5 kGy (approximately equivalent to a 5 year working lifetime in high dose applications, and 10 years in medical imaging). A decrease in the photocurrent output of 22% was observed for zero‐bias operation after 5 kGy of irradiation (Figure 4d).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymer Photodetectors for Printable, Flexible, and Fully Tissue Equivalent X‐Ray Detection with Zero‐Bias Operation and Ultrafast Temporal Responses

Posar

Davis

Alnaghy

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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A new printable organic semiconducting material combination as a tissue equivalent photodetector for indirect X‐ray detection is demonstrated in this work. The device exhibits a higher optical‐to‐electrical conversion efficiency than any other reported printable organic systems for X‐ray photodetection while also operating efficiently with zero applied bias. Complete X‐ray detectors fabricated by coupling the photodiode with a plastic scintillator are among the first flexible and fully tissue equivalent X‐ray detectors capable of operating without external bias. The response to X‐rays is energy independent between 50 keV and 1.2 MeV, with a detection sensitivity equivalent to inorganic direct X‐ray detectors and one of the fastest temporal responses ever reported for organic X‐ray detectors. The materials can be printed into arrays with a pixel pitch of 120 μm, providing 2D spatial detection. The devices are found to be highly stable with respect to time, mechanical flexing, and large (5 kGy) radiation doses. The new materials and fully tissue equivalent X‐ray detectors reported here provide stable, printable, flexible, and tissue equivalent detectors with a high radiolucency that are ideally suited for wearable applications, where simultaneous monitoring and high transmission of the X‐ray absorbed dose into the human body is required.

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Radiation Hard Plastic Scintillators for a New Generation of Particle Detectors

Cited by 9 publications

References 9 publications

A review of printable, flexible and tissue equivalent materials for ionizing radiation detection

A review of printable, flexible and tissue equivalent materials for ionizing radiation detection

Characterization of an organic semiconductor diode for dosimetry in radiotherapy

Polymer Photodetectors for Printable, Flexible, and Fully Tissue Equivalent X‐Ray Detection with Zero‐Bias Operation and Ultrafast Temporal Responses

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