Crystal Properties (PDF 36k)
Scintillator Detector Types (PDF 129k)
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NaI:Tl -
YAP:Ce -
YAG:Ce -
BGO -
CaF:Eu -
CsI:Tl -
LuAG:Ce -
GSO -
CWO -
PWO -
NBWO -
ZnSe(Te)
Nal:Tl
Sodium iodide activated by thallium has long been the scintillation
standard. Nal:Tl has good performance, economical price, high
luminescence efficiency, very good spectroscopic performance and no
significant self absorption of the scintillated light.
YAP:Ce
Yttrium aluminum perovskite activated by cerium is a fast, mechanically
strong and chemically resistant scintillation material. Mechanical
properties enable precise machining and entrance windows can be made
with a very thin aluminum layer deposited directly on the entrance
surface of the crystal. YAP:Ce scintillators have very low energy
secondary X-ray emissions which makes them desirable for imagining
applications. YAP:Ce detectors are used for gamma and X-ray counting,
electron microscopy, electron and X-ray imaging screens, and tomography
systems.
YAG:Ce
Yttrium aluminum garnet activated by cerium is fast with excellent
mechanical properties and is chemically resistant scintillator.
Mechanical properties enable to produce YAG:Ce scintillation screens
down to a thickness of 30 µm. YAG:Ce detectors are excellent for
electron microscopy, beta and X-ray counting, electron and X-ray
imaging screens.
BGO
Bismuth germanate is intrinsic scintillation material with high
absorption power. Due to its high effective atomic number and high
density, BGO is a very efficient gamma absorber with high photo effect
fraction which results in a very good photo peak to Compton ratio. BGO
detectors are preferred for medium and high-energy gamma counting and
high-energy physics applications.
CaF:Eu
Calcium fluoride activated by Europium is light scintillators are used
for detection of charged particles and soft gamma ray up to several
hundreds keV. CaF:Eu is typically used for detection of beta rays due
to its relatively small back scattering. It is not suitable for
detection of high-energy gamma ray because has a small photo fraction.
It is non hygroscopic and is relatively chemically inert.
CsI:Tl
Cesium Iodide activated by thallium is a scintillation material with
high absorption power and can be used as an efficient gamma ray
absorber. CsI:Tl is soluble in water, but is not hygroscopic in
laboratory conditions. It has high resistance to mechanical and thermal
shocks. CsI:Tl can be easily fabricated into wide variety of shapes and
geometries. It can be also fabricated into detection matrices.
LuAG:Ce
Lutetium Aluminum Garnet activated by Cerium (chemical formula
Lu3Al5O7) is relatively dense and fast scintillation material. Its
density of 6.73 g/cm3 is about 94 % of density of BGO (7.13 g/cm3).
Decay time is much faster (70 ns) compared to BGO (300 ns). This is
advantage for time dependent and coincidence measurements.
Wavelength
of scintillation emission is about 535 nm, similar as BGO (480 nm),
which is ideal for Photodiode and Avalanche Diode readout. This
material can by used also for Imaging Screens, similarly to YAG:Ce. The
advantage of LuAG:Ce is its higher density allowing for thinner screens
with higher spatial resolution. The material is mechanically and
chemically stable, it can be machined to variety of shapes and sizes
including prisms, spheres, and very thin plates.
Its
primary advantage high density, fast decay time, a wavelength of
luminescence emission well suitable for photodiode and avalanche diode
readout, chemical, mechanical, and temperature resistance make it an
ideal choice for PET scanners, high energy gamma and charge particle
detection, and high spatial resolution Imaging Screens for Gamma, X,
Beta and UV ray
GSO
Gadolinium silicate doped with cerium is a "fast" crystal and can be
used as a protection scintillator. Its possible applications include
computer tomography, spatial resolution of less than 1 mm. Is the most
promising for spectrometry and radiometry of gamma-radiation in the low
energy range (<1 MeV). Has good temperature stability, due to which
can be used in system equipment.
CWO
Cadmium tungstate CdWO4 (CWO), due to its low intrinsic background and
afterglow together with sufficiently high light yield, is the most
promising for spectrometry and radiometry of radio nuclides under
extremely low activities, and also for computer tomography. Technology
of its production is also well developed.
PWO
Lead tungstate PbWO4 (PWO) is a new "heavy" highly efficient and "fast"
scintillator for high energy physics. It has the shortest radiation
length and Moliere radius among the known scintillators, satisfactory
light yield for this energy range, high radiation stability. Production
technology which is under continuous development allows to prepare
uniform scintillators ensuring high energetic and special resolution of
the detecting assembles on accelerators.
NBWO
Double tungstate of sodium and bismuth NaBi(WO4)2 (NBWO) is also a new
"heavy", "fast" and optically dense oxide single crystal. Is used as a
Cherenkov radiator.
ZnSe(Te)
ZnSe(Te) single crystals are characterized by the unique combination of
high conversion efficiency, intrinsic luminescence in the red region of
spectrum, high thermal and radiation stability; they are not
hygroscopic, and afterglow is practically absent. Production technology
has been developed of "fast" and "slow" scintillation crystals with
different decay times and intrinsic luminescence maximum wavelengths.
ZnSe(Te)
crystals are not toxic, moisture-resistant, conserve working parameters
after gamma-irradiation up to 107 Rad and continuous heating up to 400
K. These qualities make ZnSe(Te) an excellent material for
multi-purpose ionizing radiation detectors of the "scintillator-silicon
photodiode" type. They are used for radiation monitoring, medical and
technical tomography, X-ray medical devices, non-destructive testing
systems, customs inspection, spectrometry of alpha- and beta-radiation,
as well as soft X-rays.