Development of polystyrene-based scintillation materials and its mechanisms

Scintillation materials based on polystyrene (PS) have been investigated. Para-terphenyl was employed as a fluorescent molecule (fluor) that functions as a wavelength shifter. A clear increase in photon yield of the scintillation materials relative to the pure PS was observed, which cannot be explained by the conventional theory of scintillation mechanism. Furthermore, the photon yield increased with flour concentration in accordance with a power-law. Here we reveal the emergence of a luminescence of PS-based scintillation materials and demonstrate that their photon yields can be controlled by the fluor concentration.