The growth and characterization of the cerium contained inorganic halide scintillators

A report on the crystal growth, luminescence and scintillation characteristics of two developed scintillators, CsCe₂Cl₇ and Cs₂NaCeCl₆ are presented. CsCe₂Cl ₇ is a new scintillation material. These crystals were grown by the Czochralski pulling technique. The X-ray diffraction technique was used to verify the structure of crystals. Under the X-ray excitation emission, the CsCe₂Cl₇ showed a broad emission band in the wavelength range from 370 to 470 nm while the Cs₂NaCeCl₆ crystal showed a spectrum in the wavelength range from 370 to 440 nm. The energy resolutions (FWHM of peak position) for the 662 keV full energy peak of 5.5% and 8.3% were observed at room temperature for the CsCe₂Cl₇ and Cs₂NaCeCl₆ crystals, respectively. The scintillation decay time measurement curves showed that, CsCe₂Cl₇ crystal has a single exponential decay function with a decay time of 50 ns. The Cs₂NaCeCl₆ crystal exhibited three main decay time components, a short component with a decay time constant of 91 ns and 36% intensity, an intermediate component with a decay time constant of 601 ns and intensity 33%, followed by a long component with a 3.2 μs decay time constant and an intensity of 31% of the total light yield. On the basis of the scintillation results of these materials grown, it is believe that these scintillation crystals can find a place in medical imaging and radiation detection system.