Beam test results of a fully 3D-printed plastic scintillator particle detector prototype

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel 3D-printed plastic scintillator detector prototype with high granularity, demonstrating comparable performance to traditional detectors through beam testing at CERN.

Contribution

It presents a new additive manufacturing approach for creating high-granularity scintillator detectors, simplifying fabrication and assembly processes.

Findings

Light yield of ~27 photoelectrons per channel.

Crosstalk between cubes averaged 4-5%.

Light yield uniformity within cubes was about 7%.

Abstract

Plastic scintillators are widely used for the detection of elementary particles, and 3D reconstruction of particle tracks is achieved by segmenting the detector into 3D granular structures. In this study, we present a novel prototype fabricated by additive manufacturing, consisting of a 5 x 5 x 5 array of 1 cm3 plastic scintillator cubes, each optically isolated. This innovative approach eliminates the need to construct complex monolithic geometries in a single operation and gets rid of the traditional time-consuming manufacturing and assembling processes. The prototype underwent performance characterization during a beam test at CERN's Proton-Synchrotron facility. Light yield, optical crosstalk, and light response uniformity, were evaluated. The prototype demonstrated a consistent light yield of approximately 27 photoelectrons (p.e.) per channel, similar to traditional cast scintillator detectors. Crosstalk between adjacent cubes averaged 4-5%, and light yield uniformity within individual cubes exhibited about 7% variation, indicating stability and reproducibility. These results underscore the potential of the novel additive manufacturing technique, for efficient and reliable production of high-granularity scintillator detectors.