Fast-Timing Scintillator Architectures Made with Photopolymers: Light Yield, Decay, Transport and Radiation Stability

Photocurable scintillators make it possible to fabricate radiation-sensitive structures with geometries that are difficult to obtain by machining or casting, but the timing performance of a printed detector cannot be inferred from fluorophore lifetime alone. Detected pulse shape and timing depend on energy transfer, scintillation decay, photon path-length distribution, bulk attenuation, scattering, surface state, detector coupling and electronic readout. This review separates these terms and examines evidence from fast-curing organic scintillators, perovskite-photopolymer composites and recent DLP-printed radiation-hard plastic scintillators. The published literature shows that rapid optical responses, pulse-shape discrimination and substantial relative light yield can coexist with photocurable processing, while also exposing ageing, leaching and radiation-induced transmission loss as independent qualification variables. An engineering framework is proposed that treats intrinsic emission kinetics, optical transport and radiation stability as separate but coupled gates. Minimum reporting includes formulation identity, print and post-cure conditions, specimen geometry, excitation or radiation field, spectral response, absolute or relative light yield, decay model, attenuation, surface/coupling state and dose-history-dependent remeasurement. ER-423.