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 mm ³. 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 BaCl ₂ 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.