Performance of new ceramic scintillators for gamma-and x-ray detection

Ceramic materials show significant promise for the production of reasonably priced, large-size scintillators. Ceramics have recently received a great deal of attention in the field of materials for laser applications, and the technology for fabricating high-optical-quality polycrystalline ceramics of cubic materials has been well developed. The formation of transparent ceramics of non-cubic materials is, however, much more difficult as a result of birefringence effects in differently oriented grains. Here, we will describe the performance of a few new ceramics developed for the detection of gamma- and x-ray radiation. Results are presented for ceramic analogs of three crystalline materials - cubic Lu₂O₃, and non-cubic LaBr₃, and Lu₂SiO₅ or LSO (hexagonal, and monoclinic structures, respectively). The impact of various sintering, hot-pressing and post-formation annealing procedures on the light yield, transparency, and other parameters, will be discussed. The study of LaBr₃:Ce shows that fairly translucent ceramics of rare-earth halides can be fabricated and they can reach relatively high light yield values. Despite the fact that no evidence for texturing has been found in our LSO:Ce ceramic microstructures, the material demonstrates a surprisingly high level of translucency or transparency. While the scintillation of LSO:Ce ceramic reaches a light yield level of about 86 % of that of a good LSO:Ce single crystal, its decay time is even faster, and the long term afterglow is lower than in LSO single crystals.