Thallium magnesium chloride: A high light yield, large effective atomic number, intrinsically activated crystalline scintillator for X-ray and gamma-ray detection

Abstract

We report the luminescence and the scintillation properties of a newly developed thallium magnesium chloride (TlMgCl3) crystal. The crystal sample can be easily fabricated from the melt using the Bridgman method. The photoluminescence band appeared near the wavelength of 405 nm under excitation at 230 nm. An X-ray-induced scintillation spectrum showed an intense emission band near the wavelength of 405 nm. The decay time constant was estimated to be approximately 60 ns (∼25%) and 350 ns (∼75%) using a bi-exponential fitting. The scintillation light yield reached 46,000 photons/MeV with an energy resolution of 5% at 662 keV.

Inorganic scintillating materials and scintillation detectors

“…Motivated by this work, we have further developed non-hygroscopic halide scintillators, including Tl- and In-doped CsCl, 119) TlCdCl 3 , 120) Tl- and Ce-doped Cs 2 HfCl 6 , 121) Rb 2 HfCl 6 , 122) Ce-doped CsCaCl 3 123) and TlMgCl 3 . 124) Among these newly developed scintillators, especially TlMgCl 3 shows the most promising properties of a high light yield (46,000 ph/MeV), a high energy resolution (5% at 662 keV) and a relatively fast decay (60 ns).…”

Comparative Studies of Scintillation Properties of Tl-based Crystals

“…(22)(23)(24) Among such halide materials, Tl-based crystalline materials have shown excellent scintillation properties such as high light yield and energy resolution. (31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) Although the R&D of scintillators of the emission center doping type is the recent trend, (37)(38)(39) these Tl-based scintillators can emit sufficient scintillation photons via intrinsic luminescence. In addition to their efficient scintillation properties, a high effective atomic number owing to Tl can be expected, and Tl-based scintillators can be potentially attractive for use as γ-ray scintillation detectors.…”

“…In this work, we investigate Tl-based scintillators such as Tl 2 ZrCl 6 , TlMgCl 3 , TlCdCl 3 , TlSrCl 3 , and TlBaCl 3 focusing on their γ-ray detection properties. Among them, Tl 2 ZrCl 6 , (33) TlMgCl 3 , (31) and TlCdCl 3 (32) have already been investigated extensively, but TlSrCl 3 and TlBaCl 3 have not been investigated yet. The aim of this work is to compare the pulse height spectroscopic properties of these newly developed Tl-based scintillators.…”

New Tl 2 LaBr 5 : Ce 3+ crystal scintillator for γ-rays detection

“…No such peaks are observed in the 5%Ce crystal. Origin of the luminescence in the pure crystal is unknown however, it might be due to the localized Tl + ion or some intrinsic defect in TLB crystal [16,17].…”