Red-emitting liquid and plastic scintillators with nanosecond time response

Abstract Due to the extreme experimental conditions encountered, the Laser Megajoule facility (LMJ) needs to develop and characterize new organic scintillators with unseen features: a fast decay time, in the order of one nanosecond with almost no afterglow, and an emission wavelength in the red region, typically more than 600 nm. Thus, various compositions have been evaluated, prepared and tested. The materials are composed of a matrix (either liquid or plastic) embedding two fluorophores and a light quencher. Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting was used to assess the main criteria of the materials, which is their photoluminescence decay. In the liquid state, ultra-fast materials were successfully prepared. One liquid scintillator formulation showed the following characteristics: an emission wavelength > 600 nm, a mean decay time of 0.84 ns with a FWHM pulse width of 1.92 ns. In the plastic state the preparation was less straightforward. A plastic scintillator with emission wavelength > 600 nm, a decay time