Scintillation Properties of TlGd₂Cl₇ (Ce³⁺) Single Crystal

A novel TlGd₂Cl₇ single crystal with scintillation properties is presented. TlGd₂Cl₇ single crystals with different Ce³⁺-doping concentrations (0, 0.5, 1, and 5 mol%) are grown using the vertical Bridgman technique. All doped samples exhibit typical Ce³⁺ emission under X-ray excitation between 350 and 550 nm. Among all grown samples, the best light yield (LY) of 49 700 photons/MeV and good energy resolution of 6% (full-width at half-maximum) are observed for the 5-mol%-Ce³⁺-doped TlGd₂Cl₇ crystal under an excitation of 662-keV γ -rays at room temperature. Three exponential decay components are observed for all Ce³⁺- doped samples at room temperature. Faster decays are observed with the increase in the Ce³⁺ concentration. The effective atomic (Z) number of the proposed crystal is 64; therefore, efficient X- and γ -ray detections could be performed with the proposed scintillator. The high LY, high effective Z number, good energy resolution, and fast scintillation response suggest that this scintillator could be employed in various applications. Further investigations are ongoing for the improvement of its scintillation properties with a higher Ce³⁺ concentration.