The growth and scintillation properties of Cs₂NaCeCl₆ single crystal

In this paper, we report on the improved scintillation properties of Cs₂NaCeCl₆ crystal. The Cs₂NaCeCl₆ crystal was grown by the Czochralski technique in the dimensions of {circled division slash}10×4 mm³. X-ray excited luminescence measurements of the Cs₂NaCeCl₆ crystal showed a doublet emission spectrum in the wavelength range from 370 to 440 nm, peaking at 380 and 410 nm. An energy resolution (FWHM of peak position) for the 662-keV full energy peak of 8.3% was observed at room temperature. The scintillation properties were studied by using different gamma ray sources. We measured an absolute light yield of 20,000 photons/MeV of absorbed γ-ray energy. The crystal shows three main scintillation decay time components of 91 ns (36%), 601 ns (33%) and 3.2 μs (31%). The results show a good proportionality for light output versus γ-ray energy. The light output deviates from the linear response of 8% between the measured range of energy.