A new photocurable scintillator fabrication capability at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

In recent years, novel methods have emerged in the fabrication of neutron-detecting organic scintillators. For example, fast UV-photocurable scintillating plastics can be made to create customized geometries through additive manufacturing or simple molding techniques. Layering volumes with variable proportions of wavelength shifters can add position-dependent detection capabilities. Advances in position sensitivity, timing resolution, or recoil angle identification enabled by these techniques would benefit a number of fields, including specific interests in neutron resonance characterization from beta-n decays and low-energy extension of neutron spectral measurements at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (LBNL) GENESIS inelastic neutron scattering facility. To investigate these new techniques in combination with lithiation to provide low-energy neutron detection, a new fabrication workstation has been assembled at LBNL's 88-Inch Cyclotron, initially by duplicating existing capabilities at the Air Force Institute of Technology and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The photon- and neutron-induced light yield response from the first scintillators produced by this new facility will be presented and plans for future research discussed.