Detailed investigation on the possibility of using EJ-299-33A plastic scintillator for fast neutron spectroscopy in large scale experiments

Detailed characterization of the newly available plastic scintillator (EJ-299-33A) having the pulse shape discrimination (PSD) property has been carried out in case of a large-sized detector (5 in.$\times$5 in.). The pulse height response of the scintillator for nearly mono-energetic neutrons has been reported in case of neutron energies E${}_n$ =3, 6 and 9 MeV. Important properties (figure-of-merit (FOM), time resolution, detection efficiency) of the detector has been compared with a commonly used liquid organic scintillator based detector of the same size coupled to the same PMT for uniformity in comparison. The results show that the plastic scintillator detector has about 12% better time resolution. However, the FOM and detection efficiency were found to be lower than that of the liquid scintillator detector by 40 - 50% and $\sim$25%, respectively. The possibility of using the new plastic scintillator in large-scale nuclear physics experiments has been pointed out.