Luminescence and scintillation characteristics of Rb₂ LiCeBr₆ single crystal

Luminescence and scintillation properties of Rb₂LiCeBr ₆ single crystal are presented. This is a new elpasolite scintillation material and is grown by vertical Bridgman technique. Under X-ray excitation, Ce³⁺ luminescence is observed between 365 and 415 nm. An energy resolution of 6.3% (FWHM) is obtained for the 662 keV full γ-ray absorption peak. The sample crystal shows good light yield of 33 000 ph/MeV of absorbed γ -ray energy. The sample crystal also shows 5.0% nonproportionality in the 31 to 1333 keV range. The luminescence decay time curve can be characterized by two decay time components with decay time constants of 55 ns (87%) and 284 ns (13%), respectively. Scintillation properties indicate that this compound can be an attractive candidate for medical imaging and radiation detection applications.