A plastic scintillator detector consists of a scintillating fiber (sensitive volume), a light pipe (used to transmit scintillation photons), a photodetector, and an electrometer for readout.
Scintillation Dopants: Many plastic scintillators directly emit UV light which has a short attenuation length. This requires a fluorine dopant which converts the UV light to visible light (typically blue, green, or orange) for measurement.
Light pipe: a plastic or air-filled fiber that conducts the light from plastic scintillator to photodetector. One common design is the dual light pipe design which improves signal-to-noise ratio by allowing removal of Chernekov Radiation. In the dual light pipe design, one light pipe will connects the plastic scintillator to a photodetector. A second light pipe is placed near the plastic scintillator, but shielded from it. The second light pipe connects to a second photodetector, providing a background (Cherenkov) reading.
Photodetector: digitizes photon signal for readout. Photodetector may be a photomultiplier tube, a photodiode or a camera (CCD or CMOS).