Hygroscopicity evaluation of halide scintillators

Author

Zhuravleva, M. ; Stand, L. ; Wei, Hung-Yu ; Hobbs, Chris ; Boatner, L.A. ; Ramey, J.O. ; Shah, Karan ; Burger, A. ; Rowe, Elliott ; Bhattacharya, Pallab ; Tupitsyn, E. ; Melcher, Charles L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mater. Sci. & Eng., Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 27 2013-Nov. 2 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

A collaborative study of relative hygroscopicity of anhydrous halide scintillators grown at various laboratories is presented. We have developed a technique to evaluate moisture sensitivity of both raw materials and grown crystals, in which the moisture absorption rate is measured using a gravimetric analysis. Degradation of the scintillation performance was investigated by recording gamma-ray spectra and monitoring the photopeak position, count rate and energy resolution. The accompanying physical degradation of the samples exposed to ambient atmosphere was photographically recorded as well. The results were compared with benchmark commercial scintillators such as NaI:Tl and LaBr₃:Ce.

Keywords

absorption; cerium; gamma-ray spectra; halides; lanthanum compounds; sodium compounds; solid scintillation detectors; thallium; LaBr₃(Ce); NaI(Tl); ambient atmosphere; anhydrous halide scintillator relative hygroscopicity; commercial scintillator benchmark; count rate monitoring; energy resolution monitoring; gamma-ray spectra; gravimetric analysis; grown crystal moisture sensitivity evaluation; halide scintillator hygroscopicity evaluation; moisture absorption rate; photographic recording; photopeak position monitoring; raw material moisture sensitivity evaluation; sample physical degradation; scintillation performance degradation; Absorption; Atmospheric measurements; Compounds; Crystals; Degradation; Moisture; Scintillator; hygroscopic; moisture absorption;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC), 2013 IEEE

Conference_Location

Seoul

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-0533-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.2013.6829669

Filename

6829669