Determination of the scintillator decay time by the autocorrelation method

An autocorrelation method is developed for determining the composition and decay time of scintillators. This method also allows studying the spatial distribution of nuclear radiation and controlling the amount of the dopants introduced in the scintillator. The decay time is measured from a few nanoseconds to microseconds. It is found out that the decay time increases in plastic scintillators with a wavelength shifter and a Gd doped.