Characterization of BaCl2 scintillation crystal at low temperature

A BaCl2 scintillation crystal was grown by the Czochralski method. The grown crystal was cut to a size of 10×10×5 mm3. The scintillation properties of the crystal such as pulse height spectra, energy resolution, and fluorescence decay time were measured with a 137Cs (662 keV) γ-ray source at room temperature. We measured the temperature dependence of the scintillation light yield and decay time with a bi-alkali photomultiplier tube for the BaCl2 crystal. The BaCl2 crystal was cooled down with compressed helium gas from room temperature to 10 K. We measured the light yield and decay time changes of the BaCl2 crystal from 10 K to room temperature. The light yield of the BaCl2 at 200 K was four times higher than that at room temperature. The decay time increases as temperature decreases. The BaCl2 scintillation crystal has a low light yield but a fast decay time so that it can be a calorimeter candidate for high energy physics experiments.