A measurement of the scintillation properties of CsCl and CsCl:Ce ³⁺ crystals using a proton beam

Crystals of CsCl (pure) and CsCl:Ce³⁺(0.5 mol%) were grown using the Czochralski method, and the properties of the crystals were measured with a proton beam. It is not easy to measure scintillation properties with radioactive isotopes because their decay time is too short, and the light yield is too small. In this case, it is difficult to separate scintillation light from single-photon noise from the PMT. To avoid this difficulty, we used the 45-MeV proton beam at the MC-50 Cyclotron in Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences (KIRAMS) for the crystal characterization. The scintillation signal of the crystals induced by the proton beam was clearly detected by the trigger system formed by the liquid scintillation detector. Accordingly, the scintillation properties of the crystals, such as the decay time and a light yield, were determined with this method. The scintillation decay times of the CsCl and CsCl:Ce³⁺ crystals were approximately 20 ns, and the light yields of the CsCl:Ce³⁺ crystal was 1.3 times higher than those of the CsCl crystal.