Polyimide-based scintillators studied by ion beam induced luminescence

New organic scintillators for ionizing radiation sensors are synthesized by dispersing dye molecules into chemically imidized polyimide hosts in order to obtain detection systems with improved radiation resistance with respect to the traditional polyvinyltoluene-based materials. Nile red (NR) and rhodamine B (RB) are dispersed at different concentrations in polyimides derived from the following monomers: 6FDA-DAD, 6FDA-DAB, and BPDA-3F. Scintillating thin films are produced by the spin coating technique. Scintillation tests are performed both on pure polyimides and on binary systems by means of ion beam induced luminescence (IBIL), in which the emission spectrum is collected during the irradiation of the films with a /sup 4/He/sup +/ beam. From the intensity and the degradation rate of the IBIL signal during irradiation, the scintillation efficiency with respect to NE102 and the radiation hardness of the produced films are calculated.