Results for aliovalent doping of CeBr{sub 3} with Ca{sup 2+}
- Remote Sensing Laboratory – Nellis, P. O. Box 98521, Las Vegas, Nevada 89193-8521 (United States)
- Materials Chemistry Department, Sandia National Laboratories, California, P. O. Box 969, Livermore, California 94551-0969 (United States)
- Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc., 44 Hunt Street, Watertown, Massachusetts 02472 (United States)
- National Security Technologies, LLC, Los Alamos Operations, P. O. Box 809, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544-0809 (United States)
Despite the outstanding scintillation performance characteristics of cerium tribromide (CeBr{sub 3}) and cerium-activated lanthanum tribromide, their commercial availability and application are limited due to the difficulties of growing large, crack-free single crystals from these fragile materials. This investigation employed aliovalent doping to increase crystal strength while maintaining the optical properties of the crystal. One divalent dopant (Ca{sup 2+}) was used as a dopant to strengthen CeBr{sub 3} without negatively impacting scintillation performance. Ingots containing nominal concentrations of 1.9% of the Ca{sup 2+} dopant were grown, i.e., 1.9% of the CeBr{sub 3} molecules were replaced by CaBr{sub 2} molecules, to match our target replacement of 1 out of 54 cerium atoms be replaced by a calcium atom. Precisely the mixture was composed of 2.26 g of CaBr{sub 2} added to 222.14 g of CeBr{sub 3}. Preliminary scintillation measurements are presented for this aliovalently doped scintillator. Ca{sup 2+}-doped CeBr{sub 3} exhibited little or no change in the peak fluorescence emission for 371 nm optical excitation for CeBr{sub 3}. The structural, electronic, and optical properties of CeBr{sub 3} crystals were studied using the density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation. Calculated lattice parameters are in agreement with the experimental data. The energy band structures and density of states were obtained. The optical properties of CeBr{sub 3}, including the dielectric function, were calculated.
- OSTI ID:
- 22275714
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
APPROXIMATIONS
CALCIUM BROMIDES
CALCIUM IONS
CERIUM BROMIDES
CONCENTRATION RATIO
DENSITY FUNCTIONAL METHOD
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
ENERGY-LEVEL DENSITY
EXCITATION
FLUORESCENCE
LANTHANUM BROMIDES
LATTICE PARAMETERS
MONOCRYSTALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
SCINTILLATIONS