Scintillation properties of Cs₂LiGdCl₆: Ce ³⁺

In this communication, we investigated the scintillation properties of Cs₂LiGdCl₆:10% Ce³⁺ single crystal. This scintillation crystal is grown by using the vertical Bridgman technique. X-rays induced emission spectra show that, Cs₂LiGdCl₆:10% Ce ³⁺ emits into the Ce³⁺ band, spanning from 365 nm to 450 nm wavelengths. Under γ-ray excitation, the sample crystal shows three main decay time components of 129 ns (51%), 573 ns (32%) and 8.9 μs (17%). It offers an energy resolution of 5.0% (FWHM) for the 662 keV full absorption peak at room temperature. We measured an absolute light yield of 20,000 photons/MeV of absorbed γ-ray energy. We found that with a little exposure to the air, the scintillation properties of the Cs₂LiGdCl₆:10% Ce³⁺ crystal deteriorate, which is attributed to the highly hygroscopic nature of this material. We believe that the Cs ₂LiGdCl₆:10% Ce³⁺ crystal can be a promising material for medical imaging and radiation detection. Moreover due to the presence of Li and Gd constituents, this scintillation crystal can also be the possible candidate for thermal neutron detection.