A Novel Type of Silicone Rubber-Based Scintillator for Extensive Air Showers Particle Detection

We proposed to use new inexpensive specialized scintillators optimized for different types of particles in experiments of detecting extensive air showers. The scintillators developed in our laboratory are based on locally produced phosphors immersed in a compound—optically transparent silicone rubber, so we called them “silicone rubber-based scintillators.” Some of the first versions of such scintillators are already successfully used to register thermal neutrons and cascade particles in a number of Extensive Air Showers arrays created with our participation. We show here preliminary results of the development of specialized scintillators of this type to record different particles: fast neutrons, muons, electrons and gamma rays.