3D printing of composite reflectors for enhanced light collection in
scintillation detectors
Abstract
The present study deals with the fabrication of light-reflecting
materials used in pixelated scintillator detectors. For the first time,
the reflecting surfaces for pixels of different sizes (from 0.8 to 3.2
mm) were obtained via a low-cost DLP 3D printing technique. The material
for the reflectors was the new composite of transparent ultraviolet
light-cured resin and TiO2 as a light-scattering filler.
It was observed that TiO2 showed better performance
compare to other pigments such as BaSO4, hBN or cubic
zirconia. The object formation rate was about 1 cm per hour with the
possibility to produce several parts simultaneously that simplifies the
wrapping procedure. It was found that the regular grooves pattern of the
fabricated parts (staircase effect) could increase a light collection
from a scintillator. The reflective properties of such surfaces were
comparable to conventional reflection coating (e.g., Teflon wrapping).
Presented at the 2019 IEEE NSS & MIC conference, Manchester, UK. 14
pages, 12 figures, 1 table. Journal reference: Optical Materials V. 108,
October 2020, p. 110393.