Title :
Study on Crystal Growth and Scintillation Characteristics of Cs
LiCeCl
Author :
Rooh, Gul ; Kim, H.J. ; Kim, Sunghwan
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Phys., Kyungpook Nat. Univ., Daegu, South Korea
fDate :
6/1/2010 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
In this work, we present the crystal growth and scintillation properties of our newly developed scintillation crystal, Cs2 LiCeCl6, for a γ-ray spectroscopy. This scintillation crystal is grown by using the vertical Bridgman method. The crystal of this material belongs to the elpasolite family characterized by a cubic structure and potentially can be easily grown in large volumes. Under the X-ray excitation, cerium emission band is observed to peak at 385 nm and 405 nm. An energy resolution (full width at half maximum over the peak position) of 5.5% was observed for the 662 keV full absorption peak. We measured an absolute light yield of 22 000 photons/MeV of absorbed η -ray energy. The crystal shows three main scintillation decay time components of 101 ns (42%), 557 ns (35%) and 2.9 μs (23%). This material is highly hygroscopic and special attention was paid during data taking and handling processes. We believe that the Cs2 LiCeCl6 crystal can be a promising material for medical imaging and radiation detection. Moreover due to the presence of Li ions, this scintillation crystal can also be a possible candidate for thermal neutron detection.
Keywords :
caesium compounds; cerium compounds; crystal growth from melt; gamma-ray spectra; lithium compounds; scintillation; Cs2LiCeCl6; X-ray excitation; absorption peak; cerium emission band; crystal growth; cubic structure; elpasolite family; gamma-ray spectroscopy; medical imaging; radiation detection; scintillation properties; thermal neutron detection; vertical Bridgman method; wavelength 385 nm; wavelength 405 nm; Biomedical imaging; Cerium; Crystalline materials; Electromagnetic wave absorption; Energy measurement; Energy resolution; Neutrons; Photonic crystals; Radiation detectors; Spectroscopy; Elpasolite; X-ray; inorganic; scintillation;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TNS.2009.2037903