Abstract
Various scintillators have been used in a wide range of scientific fields, such as physical science, engineering, and medical science. Although the performance of organic scintillators is inferior to the performance of inorganic scintillators, they can be simply manufactured, they are inexpensive, they are readily available, and they have been used by many people for half a century. Plastic scintillators are produced by using plastics containing aromatic hydrocarbons, which are basic materials, and doping them with one or two types of wavelength shifters. The main reason for doping with wavelength shifters is to convert the fluorescence generated in the basic material into a wavelength in the visible light region where it can be detected and recorded. Another reason is to reduce self-absorption of the light that is fluoresced in the basic material. However, due to extensive technological developments, detectors that can detect light in the short wavelength region have become commercially available. Here we show to review the history of scintillation detectors and verify that "simple" plastics can detect radiation with high accuracy.
