BaBrI:Eu2+, a new bright scintillator

Abstract

The scintillation properties of BaBrI:Eu 2+ are reported. Crystals were produced by the vertical Bridgman technique in a sealed quartz ampoule. Excellent scintillation properties were measured. A light yield of 81,000 ± 3,000 photons per MeV (ph/MeV) of absorbed gamma-ray energy was measured. An energy resolution (FWHM over peak position) of 4.8 ± 0.5% was observed for the 662 keV full absorption peak. Pulsed x-ray luminescence measurements show two exponential decay components of 297 and 482 ns with a contribution to the total light output of 23 and 77%, respectively. Under X-ray and UV excitation, the emission corresponds to a broadband center at 413 nm. These intitial values make BaBrI:Eu 2+ one of the brightest and the fastest known Eu 2+ doped scintillators.Introduction Very few known scintillators have a good energy resolutions, which is essential for spectroscopic applications such as isotopic identification of nuclear materials. High luminosity and relatively high speed (less than 1 µs) are also highly desirable for these applications. Only 18 compounds are reported with an energy resolution of less than 6% [1]. Among those, only SrI 2 is activated by Eu 2+ . While activation with Eu 2+ yields scintillation light that is slower than that produced from Ce 3+ activation, it is still fast enough for many applications such as those related to national security. In this paper we present the scintillation properties of BaBrI:Eu 2+ . Barium mixed halides activated by Eu 2+ have been extensively studied as X-ray phosphors [2-4] but have not been investigated as scintillators.

New single crystal scintillators: CsCaCl3:Eu and CsCaI3:Eu

“…3. This broad excitation band with unresolved peaks was also observed in Ba 2 CsI 5 :Eu and BaBrI:Eu scintillators [2][3]12]. The 280 nm band appears resolved in the excitation spectrum of the CsCaI3:Eu sample.…”

Structure and scintillation of Eu2+-activated calcium bromide iodide

“…The mixed halides BaFI [9], BaBrI [10], BaClI [11] and BaBrCl [11] showed a clear improvement in the scintillation properties compared with the binary halides. Solid solutions offer the possibility to tailor properties by incrementally varying the composition.…”

Ba11La4Br34: a new barium lanthanum bromide

“…Alkaline earth halides (Cherepy et al, 2008), rare earth halides (van Loef et al, 2002;Glodo et al, 2008), and compounds based on such binaries (Bourret-Courchesne et al, 2009, 2010 are efficient scintillators when doped with divalent europium or trivalent cerium. For a detailed study of the luminescence properties of the title compound, see : Eagleman et al (2011).…”