Crystal Growth, Luminescence and Scintillation Characterizations of Cs₂KLaCl₆:Ce and Cs₂KCeCl₆

Abstract

Elpasolite halides scintillation crystals have been proven to be very important materials for X-ray and γ-ray detector applications. The crystals of Cs2KLaCl6:4% Ce (CKLC) and Cs2KCeCl6 (CKCC) belong to novel scintillation of the Chloro-elpasolite crystal family. In this paper, the crystal growth of CKLC and CKCC crystals using the vertical Bridgman techniques were reported. The PXRD patterns showing both crystals have a cubic crystal structure. Both crystals have similar photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra, the fluorescence decay time of CKLC and CKCC crystals were about 49.7 and 33.8 ns. The energy resolution under the excitation of 662 keV γ-rays from a 137Cs source were found to be 6.6% and 5.2% (FWHM), respectively. The scintillation decay times of CKLC crystal were τ1 = 127 ns (33%) and τ2 = 1617 ns (67%), while that of CKCC crystal were τ1 = 2.86 ns (5%) and τ2 = 81 ns (95%).

Keywords

• elpasolite
• Bridgman technique
• photoluminescence
• scintillator materials