Publications

Cerium doped elpasolite halide scintillators

Doty, Fred P.; Zhou, Xiaowang Z.; Noda, Frank T.

Low-cost, high-performance gamma-ray spectrometers are urgently needed for proliferation detection and homeland security. The cost and availability of large scintillators used in the spectrometer generally hinge on their mechanical property and crystal symmetry. Low symmetry, intrinsically brittle crystals, such as these emerging lanthanide halide scintillators, are particularly difficult to grow in large sizes due to the development of large anisotropic thermomechanical stresses during solidification process. Isotropic cubic scintillators, such as alkali halides, while affordable and can be produced in large sizes, are poor spectrometers due to severe nonproportional response and modest light yield. This work investigates and compares four new elpasolite based lanthanide halides, including Cs2LiLaBr6, Cs2NaLaBr6, Cs2LiLaI6, and Cs2NaLaI6, in terms of their crystal symmetry, characteristics of photoluminescence and optical quantum efficiency. The mechanical property and thermal expansion behavior of the cubic Cs2LiLaBr6 will be reported. The isotropic nature of this material has potential for scaled-up crystal growth, as well as the possibility of low-cost polycrystalline ceramic processing. In addition, the proportional response with gamma-ray energy of directionally solidified Cs2LiLaBr6 will be compared with workhorse alkali halide scintillators. The processing challenges associated with hot forged polycrystalline elpasolite based lanthanide halides will also be discussed.