Plastic Fiber

Scintillating and Light Transmitting

A variety of plastic scintillating, wavelength-shifting and light-transmitting fibers are produced for research and industry. Scintillating fibers consist of a polystyrene-based core and a PMMA cladding. The scintillating core contains a combination of fluorescent dopants selected to produce the desired scintillation, optical and radiation-resistance characteristics.

Starting in 2023, Luxium Solutions introduced the BCF-XL series of scintillating and wavelength shifting fibers with improved, market-leading attenuation length for optimal, reliable performance for a variety of different applications. Properties of our BCF-XL fiber formulations can be found in the table below.

Current sizes range from 0.5 mm to 3 mm round cross-sections and are available in canes, spools, ribbons, and arrays. Custom sizes and designs are available upon request. Fibers > 2mm are available only in cane form to prevent the fiber from retaining the shape of the spool.

Scintillating fibers are well-suited for such applications as Industrial gauging, Calorimeters, Real-time imaging systems.

The flexibility of fibers allows them to conform to surface shapes, yielding geometries superior to those of other types of detectors. Examples are detectors for monitoring pipes or barrels.

Scintillating Fibers

Fiber Type	Emission Color	Emission Peak, nm	Decay Time, ns	# of Photons per MeV*	Attenuation Length (m)**	Characteristics / Applications
BCF-10XL	blue	432	2.7	~8000	>4	General-purpose; optimized for diameters >250μm
BCF-12XL	blue	435	3.2	~8000	>4	Improved transmission for use in long lengths
BCF-9998XL	blue	435	3.2	~8000	>4	Scintillating fiber, optimized for maximum light output in short length canes (<0.5m)
BCF-20XL	green	492	2.7	~8000	>4	Fast green scintillator
BCF-60XL	green	530	7	~7100	>4	3HF formulation for radiation hardness

Wavelength-Shifting Fibers

Fiber Type	Emission Color	Emission Peak, nm	Decay Time, ns	# of Photons per MeV*	Attenuation Length (m)**	Characteristics / Applications
BCF-91AXL	green	494	12	n/a	>4	Shifts blue to green
BCF-92XL	green	492	2.7	n/a	>4	Fast blue to green shifter
BCF-9929AXL	green	492	2.7	n/a	>4	Blue to green shifter. Pairs well when exciting wavelengths are >425nm (e.g. injection-molded and extruded scintillators)
BCF-9995XL	blue	450	2.7	n/a	>4	UV to blue shifter
BCF-9906AXL	orange	540	21.6	n/a	-	Green to orange shifter
BCF-99172XL	red	605	22.6	n/a	-	Green to red shifter

Optical Fibers

Fiber Type	Emission Color	Emission Peak, nm	Decay Time, ns	# of Photons per MeV*	Attenuation Length (m)**	Characteristics / Applications
BCF-98XL	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	Not Available	Clear waveguide

* For Minimum Ionizing Particle (MIP), corrected for PMT sensitivity

** For 1mm diameter fiber, measured using Silicon Photodiode

For Scintillating, waveshifting, and light-transmitting single fiber ribbons:

Minimum fiber diameter: 0.5mm
Standard Ribbon Length: 2" (50mm) minimum / 130" (3300mm) maximum
- Contact us for requests outside our standard length dimensions.
Width: 20" (508mm) maximum
Ribbon end finish options:
- Rough-Cut Finish: +/- 12.7mm (+/- 0.5”)
- Diamond-Mill Finish
  <2m length: +/- 0.25mm (+/- 0.010”)
  >2m length: +/- 1mm (+/- 0.0394”)

Are fibers sensitive to Neutrons?

All scintillating fibers are sensitive to fast neutrons through proton recoil.

How is fiber light output defined?

We define the light output as # of photons per MeV for minimum ionizing Particle, which is approximately 8000 for BCF-12. The more densely ionizing particles emits less light than per unit energy.

What is the fiber spool size?

Fiber is wound on a spool that measures 30" (762mm) outer diameter x 27.4" (698.5mm) core x 2.25" (57mm) with 1" (50.8mm) center hole. It will fit 1000 meters of 1mm fiber.

What is the lower temperature limit of Scintillating Fiber?

The lower limit on operating temperature has not been set, but research experiments have used fiber in temperatures down to about 4 degrees K. Fiber will lose their flexibility at low temperatures.