The performance of a new Kuraray wavelength shifting fiber YS-2

TL;DR

This paper compares the new Kuraray YS-2 wavelength shifting fiber to the established Y-11, showing YS-2's faster decay time with comparable light yield and attenuation length, making it suitable for timing applications.

Contribution

The study provides the first performance comparison of the new YS-2 fiber against Y-11, highlighting its faster decay time and similar light properties.

Findings

YS-2 has nearly twice shorter decay time than Y-11.

YS-2's light yield is comparable to Y-11.

YS-2 maintains similar attenuation length as Y-11.

Abstract

Wavelength shifting fibers are widely used for light collection from scintillation counters, which allow connection of various scintillation planes to relatively small photocathodes of photodetectors and especially tiny photocathodes of silicon photo-multipliers. In October 2020 Kuraray announced production of a new branch of faster fibers. We performed a comparison of the new fiber YS-2 to a mature Y-11. The fiber YS-2 demonstrated decay time nearly two times shorter than that of Y-11: $\approx$4.0 ns versus $\approx$7.4 ns. At the same time its light yield and attenuation length are as good as of Y-11, which makes YS-2 a good choice for timing scintillation detectors.