Materials capable of converting ionizing radiation into light photons are called scintillators, some have specific efficiencies for certain applications and types of radiation, e.g. gamma, X-ray, alpha, beta and neutrons. CsI:Tl and NaI:Tl crystals are commonly found in the market because they have several applications, but few studies have been done on lithium doped cesium iodide crystal (CsI:Li). The lithium element, in this crystal used as a dopant, is also exploited as a converter for neutron detection, as it has a shock section of 940 barns for thermal neutrons. The study of the CsI:Li crystal is convenient considering the natural abundance of the lithium element with 7.5%, besides the interest in having a low cost national scintillator material with an opportunity to search the response of a detector for different types of radiation. The CsI:Li crystal was grown with molar concentration 10-4 to 10-1, using the vertical Bridgman technique. The parameters involved in the growth process were investigated. The transmittance was evaluated in the spectral region from 190 nm to 1100 nm.  Luminescence emission spectra for the CsI:Li crystal were evaluated by photometric analysis of the crystal  stimulated with a 137Cs (662 keV) source in front of the coupled sample at the monochromator input. The crystals showed of maximum luminescence intensity at the wavelength of 420 nm. The response of the  scintillators when excited with gamma radiation of 241Am, 133Ba, 22Na, 137Cs, 60Co and neutron radiation from the AmBe source, with energy range of 1 MeV to 12 Mev was evaluated.

The development of new radiation detectors using scintillation crystals, which increase response speed, dose and energy accuracy and, at the same time, the feasibility of simplifying and reducing costs in the production process are always necessary. In the CTR-IPEN laboratory, pure and doped CsI crystals were grown using the Bridgman technique. This work shows the obtained results using a doped CsI scintillator with the converters: Br, Pb, Tl, Li as alpha, beta, gamma and neutron detectors.

Scintillators are materials that convert the energy of ionizing radiation into a flash of light. Due to the existence of different types of scintillators, they are classified into three groups according to their physicochemical characteristics, namely, inorganic, organic and gaseous scintillators. Among the inorganic crystals, the most frequently used as scintillator consist of alkali metals, in particular alkaline iodides. Scintillation materials have many applications, for instance in medical imaging, security, physics, biology, non-destructive inspection and medicine. In this study, lithium doped CsI scintillator crystals were grown using the vertical Bridgman technique. The concentration of the lithium doping element (Li) studied was 10 -4 M to 10 -1 M. Analyses were carried out to evaluate the developed scintillators with regard to luminescence emission and optical transmittance. The luminescence emission spectra of these crystals were measured with a monochromator for gamma radiation from 137 Cs source excitation. The determination of the dopant distribution along the crystalline axis allowed the identification of the region with Li concentration uniformity, which is the region of the crystalline volume indicated for use as a radiation detector. The crystals were excited with neutron radiation from AmBe source, with the energy range of 1 MeV to 12 MeV. As neutron sources also generate gamma radiation, which can interfere with the measurement, it is necessary that the detector be able to discriminate the presence of such radiation. Accordingly, experiments were performed using gamma radiation in the energy range of 59 keV to 1333 keV in order to verify the ability of the detector to discriminate the presence of different types of radiation.