Thallium-based scintillators for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy: Ce3+- doped Tl2LaCl5 and Tl2LaBr5

Urmila Shirwadkar; Matthew Loyd; Mao Hua Du; Edgar van Loef; Guido Ciampi; Lakshmi Soundara Pandian; Luis Stand; Merry Koschan; Mariya Zhuravleva; Charles Melcher; Kanai Shah

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2020.163684

Thallium-based scintillators for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy: Ce³⁺- doped Tl₂LaCl₅ and Tl₂LaBr₅

Urmila Shirwadkar, Matthew Loyd, Mao Hua Du, Edgar van Loef, Guido Ciampi, Lakshmi Soundara Pandian, Luis Stand, Merry Koschan, Mariya Zhuravleva, Charles Melcher, Kanai Shah

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper we report on the crystallographic and scintillation properties of Tl₂LaCl₅:Ce³⁺ and Tl₂LaBr₅:Ce³⁺, two novel thallium-containing high-resolution scintillators for gamma-ray spectroscopy. Crystals of Tl₂LaCl₅:Ce³⁺ and Tl₂LaBr₅:Ce³⁺ were grown by the Vertical Bridgman method up to 1-inch diameter and 1-inch long. Single crystals of Tl₂LaCl₅:Ce³⁺ and Tl₂LaBr₅:Ce³⁺ belong to the orthorhombic system with space group 62 and have a density of 5.16 and 5.98 g/cm³, respectively. The scintillators show high light yields of up to 68,000 photons/MeV, excellent gamma-ray energy resolution of ≤ 3% at 662 keV, a fast scintillation decay, and a proportional response over a wide range of energies from 32 keV up to 1275 keV. Density Functional Theory calculations show that the Ce³⁺ energy levels are inside the bandgap despite the smaller bandgap of Tl₂LaCl₅ and Tl₂LaBr₅ compared to K₂LaCl₅ and K₂LaBr₅. A systematic Ce³⁺ concentration study was performed for Tl₂LaCl₅:Ce³⁺ and trends observed.

Original language	English
Article number	163684
Journal	Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume	962
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.163684
State	Published - May 11 2020
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This research was sponsored by the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency of the United States under grant award no. HDTRA1-19-1-0014 . The content of this paper does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Powder X-ray Diffraction was performed at the Joint Institute for Advanced Materials (JIAM) Diffraction Facility, located at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This research was sponsored by the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency of the United States under grant award no. HDTRA1-19-1-0014. The content of this paper does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Defense
Defense Threat Reduction Agency	HDTRA1-19-1-0014
University of Tennessee

Keywords

DFT calculations
Gamma-ray spectroscopy
Inorganic scintillators
Radiation detectors
Thallium-based scintillators

Access to Document

10.1016/j.nima.2020.163684

Cite this

Shirwadkar, U., Loyd, M., Du, M. H., van Loef, E., Ciampi, G., Soundara Pandian, L., Stand, L., Koschan, M., Zhuravleva, M., Melcher, C., & Shah, K. (2020). Thallium-based scintillators for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy: Ce³⁺- doped Tl₂LaCl₅ and Tl₂LaBr₅. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 962, Article 163684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.163684

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title = "Thallium-based scintillators for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy: Ce3+- doped Tl2LaCl5 and Tl2LaBr5",

abstract = "In this paper we report on the crystallographic and scintillation properties of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+, two novel thallium-containing high-resolution scintillators for gamma-ray spectroscopy. Crystals of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+ were grown by the Vertical Bridgman method up to 1-inch diameter and 1-inch long. Single crystals of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+ belong to the orthorhombic system with space group 62 and have a density of 5.16 and 5.98 g/cm3, respectively. The scintillators show high light yields of up to 68,000 photons/MeV, excellent gamma-ray energy resolution of ≤ 3% at 662 keV, a fast scintillation decay, and a proportional response over a wide range of energies from 32 keV up to 1275 keV. Density Functional Theory calculations show that the Ce3+ energy levels are inside the bandgap despite the smaller bandgap of Tl2LaCl5 and Tl2LaBr5 compared to K2LaCl5 and K2LaBr5. A systematic Ce3+ concentration study was performed for Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and trends observed.",

keywords = "DFT calculations, Gamma-ray spectroscopy, Inorganic scintillators, Radiation detectors, Thallium-based scintillators",

author = "Urmila Shirwadkar and Matthew Loyd and Du, {Mao Hua} and {van Loef}, Edgar and Guido Ciampi and {Soundara Pandian}, Lakshmi and Luis Stand and Merry Koschan and Mariya Zhuravleva and Charles Melcher and Kanai Shah",

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year = "2020",

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day = "11",

doi = "10.1016/j.nima.2020.163684",

language = "English",

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Shirwadkar, U, Loyd, M, Du, MH, van Loef, E, Ciampi, G, Soundara Pandian, L, Stand, L, Koschan, M, Zhuravleva, M, Melcher, C & Shah, K 2020, 'Thallium-based scintillators for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy: Ce³⁺- doped Tl₂LaCl₅ and Tl₂LaBr₅', Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, vol. 962, 163684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.163684

Thallium-based scintillators for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy: Ce³⁺- doped Tl₂LaCl₅ and Tl₂LaBr₅. / Shirwadkar, Urmila; Loyd, Matthew; Du, Mao Hua et al.
In: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 962, 163684, 11.05.2020.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - Thallium-based scintillators for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy

T2 - Ce3+- doped Tl2LaCl5 and Tl2LaBr5

AU - Shirwadkar, Urmila

AU - Loyd, Matthew

AU - Du, Mao Hua

AU - van Loef, Edgar

AU - Ciampi, Guido

AU - Soundara Pandian, Lakshmi

AU - Stand, Luis

AU - Koschan, Merry

AU - Zhuravleva, Mariya

AU - Melcher, Charles

AU - Shah, Kanai

PY - 2020/5/11

Y1 - 2020/5/11

N2 - In this paper we report on the crystallographic and scintillation properties of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+, two novel thallium-containing high-resolution scintillators for gamma-ray spectroscopy. Crystals of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+ were grown by the Vertical Bridgman method up to 1-inch diameter and 1-inch long. Single crystals of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+ belong to the orthorhombic system with space group 62 and have a density of 5.16 and 5.98 g/cm3, respectively. The scintillators show high light yields of up to 68,000 photons/MeV, excellent gamma-ray energy resolution of ≤ 3% at 662 keV, a fast scintillation decay, and a proportional response over a wide range of energies from 32 keV up to 1275 keV. Density Functional Theory calculations show that the Ce3+ energy levels are inside the bandgap despite the smaller bandgap of Tl2LaCl5 and Tl2LaBr5 compared to K2LaCl5 and K2LaBr5. A systematic Ce3+ concentration study was performed for Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and trends observed.

AB - In this paper we report on the crystallographic and scintillation properties of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+, two novel thallium-containing high-resolution scintillators for gamma-ray spectroscopy. Crystals of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+ were grown by the Vertical Bridgman method up to 1-inch diameter and 1-inch long. Single crystals of Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and Tl2LaBr5:Ce3+ belong to the orthorhombic system with space group 62 and have a density of 5.16 and 5.98 g/cm3, respectively. The scintillators show high light yields of up to 68,000 photons/MeV, excellent gamma-ray energy resolution of ≤ 3% at 662 keV, a fast scintillation decay, and a proportional response over a wide range of energies from 32 keV up to 1275 keV. Density Functional Theory calculations show that the Ce3+ energy levels are inside the bandgap despite the smaller bandgap of Tl2LaCl5 and Tl2LaBr5 compared to K2LaCl5 and K2LaBr5. A systematic Ce3+ concentration study was performed for Tl2LaCl5:Ce3+ and trends observed.

KW - DFT calculations

KW - Gamma-ray spectroscopy

KW - Inorganic scintillators

KW - Radiation detectors

KW - Thallium-based scintillators

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