Measuring the Scintillation Decay Constant of PEN and PET with 120 GeV Proton Beam Excitation

We report the scintillation decay constants of polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) determined by excitation of the plastic substrate with an accelerated beam of protons and resulting light yield measured as a function of time with a photomultiplier attached to an oscilloscope. The decay constant of PEN was found to be 35 ns and PET 7 ns.