OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND RADIATION RESPONSE OF Li ION-DOPED CsI SCINTILLATOR CRYSTAL

Abstract

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.