Luminescence and Scintillation Properties of a CeBr $_{3}$ Single Crystal

Crystal growth, luminescence, and scintillation properties of a CeBr₃ crystal are presented. The crystal was grown with Bridgman method using two-zone transparent furnace and cut to Oslash10 times 10 mm³. The investigation of luminescence and scintillation properties of the CeBr₃ was performed under the excitation by ultraviolet and gamma-rays at room temperature. The emission spectrum of the CeBr₃ was observed in the range of near ultraviolet to violet, which is due to the 5d rarr 4f transition of Ce³⁺. The decay time of the Ce³⁺ emission was measured to be approximately 20 ns. The energy resolution of the CeBr₃ single crystal was obtained to be 4.9% for the ¹³⁷Cs 662 keV gamma-rays. The relative signal of the CeBr₃ crystal by the ¹³⁷Cs gamma-rays is about three times higher than that of a CsI:Tl crystal when a bi-alkali PMT was used. The nonproportionality in the gamma-ray energy of the crystal was also measured. The study showed that the CeBr₃ crystal is the promising candidate for the PET application. The CeBr₃ crystal with high light output and fast decay time affords its use for the particle detection in a high counting rate environment such as nuclear and high-energy physics.