Optical Characterization Measurements of Commercial Polyvinyltoluene Scintillators for Accurate Geant4 Detector Modeling
Abstract
Accurate Monte Carlo simulation of plastic scintillator detectors requires precise wavelength-dependent optical properties. We present measurements of wavelength-dependent refractive index n(λ) and bulk absorption length Labs(λ) for six commercial polyvinyltoluene (PVT)-based scintillators (Saint Gobain BC-400, BC-404, BC-408, BC-418, BC-422, and BC-430) at five wavelengths between 372 and 660 nm. Using a precision refraction apparatus and variable-thickness transmission measurements, we characterize material-specific dispersion that deviates substantially from both the manufacturer specification and literature values for pure PVT. Illustrative Geant4 simulations of a BC-422 detector demonstrate a 7.2% reduction in photocathode energy-deposition threshold events when using our measured n(λ) compared to the constant manufacturer value, highlighting the practical importance of accurate optical property data for detector design and calibration. We successfully measure absorption lengths for BC-430 at four wavelengths between 372 and 505 nm (2.2-12.4 mm) and for all materials at 372 nm (2.2-38 mm), while establishing lower bounds exceeding 750 mm for weakly absorbing formulations at longer wavelengths.
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BibTeX
@misc{huggins2026optical,
title = {{Optical Characterization Measurements of Commercial Polyvinyltoluene Scintillators for Accurate Geant4 Detector Modeling}},
author = {Fergus Martin Huggins and Micah S. Johnson and Matthew Quinn Buckner},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.13710},
eprint = {2608.13710},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13710},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Optical Characterization Measurements of Commercial Polyvinyltoluene Scintillators for Accurate Geant4 Detector Modeling
AU - Fergus Martin Huggins
AU - Micah S. Johnson
AU - Matthew Quinn Buckner
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.13710
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13710
AB - Accurate Monte Carlo simulation of plastic scintillator detectors requires precise wavelength-dependent optical properties. We present measurements of wavelength-dependent refractive index n(λ) and bulk absorption length L_abs(λ) for six commercial polyvinyltoluene (PVT)-based scintillators (Saint Gobain BC-400, BC-404, BC-408, BC-418, BC-422, and BC-430) at five wavelengths between 372 and 660 nm. Using a precision refraction apparatus and variable-thickness transmission measurements, we characterize material-specific dispersion that deviates substantially from both the manufacturer specification and literature values for pure PVT. Illustrative Geant4 simulations of a BC-422 detector demonstrate a 7.2% reduction in photocathode energy-deposition threshold events when using our measured n(λ) compared to the constant manufacturer value, highlighting the practical importance of accurate optical property data for detector design and calibration. We successfully measure absorption lengths for BC-430 at four wavelengths between 372 and 505 nm (2.2-12.4 mm) and for all materials at 372 nm (2.2-38 mm), while establishing lower bounds exceeding 750 mm for weakly absorbing formulations at longer wavelengths.
ER -