TY - JOUR
T1 - Modified vertical Bridgman method
T2 - Time and cost effective tool for preparation of Cs2HfCl6 single crystals
AU - Vanecek, V.
AU - Kral, R.
AU - Paterek, J.
AU - Babin, V.
AU - Jary, V.
AU - Hybler, J.
AU - Kodama, S.
AU - Kurosawa, S.
AU - Yokota, Y.
AU - Yoshikawa, A.
AU - Nikl, M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support of the Czech Science Foundation project no. 18-17555Y is gratefully acknowledged. Partial support of the projects from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic no. LO1409 , LM2015088 and CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16 013/0001406 are also gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank A. Beitlerova and R. Kucerkova, for absorption and radioluminescence measurements, to A. Bystricky and A. Cihlar for starting materials purification and preparation of growth ampoules, and M. Kittler for grinding and polishing of samples for optical measurements.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/3/1
Y1 - 2020/3/1
N2 - Time and cost effective methods are highly desirable in research and development of new scintillators. Modern techniques like micro-pulling down (μ-PD) are suitable for material screening but are unfit for the growth of some crystals. These crystals must be grown by different methods that are usually very time demanding. Modification of halide μ-PD apparatus by custom made elements allowed us to grow cesium hafnium chloride (Cs2HfCl6) by vertical Bridgman method (VB) with significantly reduced growth time. Structural and optical properties of samples prepared from as-grown crystals were studied and compared to crystals grown by standard VB method. The X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of cesium hafnium chloride single-phase and natural cleavage of the crystals along the (1 1 1) crystallographic plane. Photoluminescence emission, excitation, absorption, and radioluminescence spectroscopy revealed that the optical quality of the crystals grown by modified VB method was comparable to the quality of the crystals grown by standard VB method. Therefore we can use samples prepared by modified VB to estimate and optimize the performance of Cs2HfCl6 based crystals in scintillation detectors. This setup allows the time and cost-effective material screening and it is a powerful tool for the development of new halide based single crystal scintillators.
AB - Time and cost effective methods are highly desirable in research and development of new scintillators. Modern techniques like micro-pulling down (μ-PD) are suitable for material screening but are unfit for the growth of some crystals. These crystals must be grown by different methods that are usually very time demanding. Modification of halide μ-PD apparatus by custom made elements allowed us to grow cesium hafnium chloride (Cs2HfCl6) by vertical Bridgman method (VB) with significantly reduced growth time. Structural and optical properties of samples prepared from as-grown crystals were studied and compared to crystals grown by standard VB method. The X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of cesium hafnium chloride single-phase and natural cleavage of the crystals along the (1 1 1) crystallographic plane. Photoluminescence emission, excitation, absorption, and radioluminescence spectroscopy revealed that the optical quality of the crystals grown by modified VB method was comparable to the quality of the crystals grown by standard VB method. Therefore we can use samples prepared by modified VB to estimate and optimize the performance of Cs2HfCl6 based crystals in scintillation detectors. This setup allows the time and cost-effective material screening and it is a powerful tool for the development of new halide based single crystal scintillators.
KW - A1. Characterization
KW - A1. Crystal structure
KW - A2. Bridgman technique
KW - B1. Halides
KW - B2. Scintillator materials
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077646276&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85077646276&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2020.125479
DO - 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2020.125479
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85077646276
SN - 0022-0248
VL - 533
JO - Journal of Crystal Growth
JF - Journal of Crystal Growth
M1 - 125479
ER -