Scintillation properties of pure and Ce$^{3+}$-doped SrF$_2$ crystals

TL;DR

This study investigates the scintillation properties of pure and Ce$^{3+}$-doped SrF$_2$ crystals, measuring light output, decay times, and temperature stability, revealing their potential as alternatives to NaI-Tl scintillators.

Contribution

It provides detailed measurements of scintillation performance of SrF$_2$ crystals doped with Ce$^{3+}$, highlighting their comparable light output to NaI-Tl and potential for radiation detection applications.

Findings

Pure SrF$_2$ emits 95% of NaI-Tl light output.

Ce$^{3+}$-doped SrF$_2$ emits 115% of NaI-Tl light output.

A photopeak at 84% of NaI-Tl output was observed for pure SrF$_2$.

Abstract

In this paper results of scintillation properties measurements of pure and Ce3+-doped strontium fluoride crystals are presented. We measure light output, scintillation decay time profile and temperature stability of light output. X-ray excited luminescence outputs corrected for spectral response of monochromator and photomultiplier for pure SrF2 and SrF2-0.3 mol.% Ce3+ are approximately 95% and 115% of NaI-Tl emission output, respectively. A photopeak with a 10% full width at half maximum is observed at approximately 84% the light output of a NaI-Tl crystal after correction for spectral response of photomultiplier, when sample 10x10 mm of pure SrF2 crystal is excited with 662 KeV photons. Corrected light output of SrF2-0.3 mol.% Ce3+ under 662 KeV photon excitation is found at approximately 64% the light output of the NaI-Tl crystal.