Cesium hafnium chloride: A high light yield, non-hygroscopic cubic crystal scintillator for gamma spectroscopy

Journal Article · Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4932570· OSTI ID:22482225

Burger, Arnold ^[1]; Rowe, Emmanuel; Groza, Michael; Morales Figueroa, Kristle ^[1]; Cherepy, Nerine J.; Beck, Patrick R.; Hunter, Steven; Payne, Stephen A. ^[2]

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1. Department of Life and Physical Sciences, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee 37208 (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)

We report on the scintillation properties of Cs{sub 2}HfCl{sub 6} (cesium hafnium chloride or CHC) as an example of a little-known class of non-hygroscopic compounds having the generic cubic crystal structure of K{sub 2}PtCl{sub 6}. The crystals are easily growable from the melt using the Bridgman method with minimal precursor treatments or purification. CHC scintillation is centered at 400 nm, with a principal decay time of 4.37 μs and a light yield of up to 54 000 photons/MeV when measured using a silicon CCD photodetector. The light yield is the highest ever reported for an undoped crystal, and CHC also exhibits excellent light yield nonproportionality. These desirable properties allowed us to build and test CHC gamma-ray spectrometers providing energy resolution of 3.3% at 662 keV.

• OSTI ID: 22482225
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 14; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
BRIDGMAN METHOD
CESIUM
CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
CRYSTALS
ENERGY RESOLUTION
GAMMA SPECTROMETERS
GAMMA SPECTROSCOPY
HAFNIUM CHLORIDES
PHOTONS
SCINTILLATIONS
SILICON
VISIBLE RADIATION
YIELDS