Scintillating Fiber in High Energy Physics

Scintillating fibers are the scintillator having the optical fiber structure composed of the core and the clad. There are those using glass and plastics as the material, and in this paper, those made of plastics are introduced. The typical fibers have polystyrene (refractive index 1.59) having fluorescent characteristic as the core, and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA, refractive index 1.49) as the clad, and the occurring scintillation light is led to a detector by utilizing total reflection. High energy physics is the stage for the development and practical use of the detectors using scintillating fibers. The uses are roughly divided into two kinds, that is, the detection of the energy and reaction site of irradiated particle beam and the use as a light guide that transforms the wavelength and leads the emitted light of a bulk scintillator being combined. As to the making of multi-layer sheets with the fibers, their necessity, the principle of high precision making of the multi-layers, the facility for making the fiber sheets, the formation of reflection surface, and the assembling of trackers, and the mass production of the fiber sheets are described. (K.I.)