Аннотация:Inorganic Scintillators and Organic Plastic Scintillators are widely used for many applications in modern-day observational astronomy and cosmic-ray experiments. We review the different detection techniques, the optical and physical characteristics of scintillator detectors, and methods of light collection. We review the main gamma-ray instruments that have used scintillation materials up to the present day and discuss their great promise for future space- and ground-based gamma-ray experiments. This is due to their fundamental properties, possibility for high segmentation, radiation hardness, and ability to use wave-length shifting fibers for light collection and multi-pixel Silicon photo-multipliers as alternatives to more conventional directly coupled optical readout (i.e., photomultiplier tubes). The combination of scintillation detectors and their photosensors will enable the search for new states of matter, antiparticles, neutrino oscillations, and will be used to study a wide range of astrophysical phenomena.
