Crystal growth and evaluations of Nd:LuLiF4 scintillators for different Nd concentration

Takayuki Yanagida, Noriaki Kawaguchi, Sumito Ishizu, Yuui Yokota, Kentaro Fukuda, Toshihisa Suyama, Akira Yoshikawa, Hiroyuki Sekiya, Hidetoshi Kubo, Toru Tanimori, Valery Chani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In order to develop novel scintillating materials, we grew 0.5 mol%, 1 mol%, and 3 mol% Nd-doped LuLiF4 scintillators by the micro-pulling down method, because LuLiF4 has a very wide band gap and Nd 3+ shows fast and intense 5d-4f emission as a luminescence center. The transmittance and emission peaks were examined in these three samples by using our original spectrometer made by Bunkou-Keiki Company. At wavelengths longer than 180 nm, approximately 60-80% transmittance with three absorption peaks around 140, 160 and 175 nm and emission peak at approximately 180 nm were observed for all the crystals. Light yields and decay time constants of the samples irradiated by 241 Am α-ray were measured using photomultiplier tubes R8778 (Hamamatsu). The light yield of the 1 mol% doped LuLiF4 was 700 photons/5.5MeV α that is much greater than that of Nd:LaF3 scintillator (100 photons/5.5MeV α). As for decay time profiles, the main component of Nd:LuLiF4 was 12 ns in the case of α-ray irradiation. 137Cs 662 keV γ-ray photoabsorption peak was detected in 1 mol% doped LuLiF4 only, and the light yield was 300 ph/MeV.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5485088
Pages (from-to)1312-1315
Number of pages4
JournalIEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Volume57
Issue number3 PART 2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010 Jun

Keywords

  • Gamma-ray detectors
  • Neodymium
  • Radiation detectors
  • Scintillation detectors

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