ABSTRACT
Perovskite scintillators have become increasingly popular in recent years because of their simple production and high sensitivity to X-ray. Due to large Stokes shifts, high light yield, eco-friendly fabrication, and good stability, the lead-free Cu-based perovskites have gained much attention. In this paper, we prepared the Cs3Cu2I5 single crystals (SCs) by the solution-processed method. At room temperature, we measured the emission band at 440 nm with an average decay time of 595 ns under X-ray excitation. Under 137Cs γ-ray excitation, we determined that the light yield of Cs3Cu2I5 SCs was 23 000 photons/MeV. Notably, under alpha particle excitation by 241Am, the light yield of Cs3Cu2I5 SCs is approximately 3.2 times higher than that of the commercial scintillator LYSO(Ce). In addition, we systematically investigated the cryogenic scintillation properties of Cs3Cu2I5 SCs at the temperature range of 60-300 K. With decreasing temperature, the intensity of the emission band at 440 nm significantly increases, and an additional emission band at 336 nm emerges below 100 K. Meanwhile, the temperature-dependent decay times were determined. The fast and slow decay time of Cs3Cu2I5 SCs are estimated to be 221 and 1193 ns, respectively, at 60 K. Our findings highlight the great potential for Cs3Cu2I5 SCs to be a cryogenic scintillator.
ABSTRACT
To improve the radioluminescence (RL) performance of ZnO:Ga (GZO) crystal scintillators and overcome the challenge of their self-absorption, we proposed a two-layer composite scintillator consisting of a GZO wafer and a 70 nm lead halide perovskite film(CsPbBr3, CH3NH3PbBr3). The effects of the perovskite film on the RL properties were studied. The results showed that the perovskite quantum dot film substantially changed the RL spectrum of GZO and prevented self-absorption. The RL of the samples were enhanced by 66% to 151% through the photoluminescence (PL) of the perovskite film, while the energy-resolving power and spatial-resolving power were maintained at the same level as that of GZO image converters. The present experiments and discussions confirmed that the perovskite film improved the RL, and this study suggests a new wavelength regulation method among scintillators, converters, and back-end optical devices. The applications of perovskites in the field of radiation detection and imaging have been extended.
ABSTRACT
The scintillator is a unique class of luminescent materials, which is of great significance in clinical diagnosis, security inspection, and radiation detection. Herein, an all-inorganic Cs4PbI6 single crystals (SCs) as a nanosecond and an efficient X-ray and α particle scintillator is described. The radioluminescence (RL) spectrum of Cs4PbI6 SCs under X-ray excitation consists of a band gap emission at 310 nm and a broadband emission at 552 nm at room temperature. Furthermore, Cs4PbI6 SCs demonstrate nanosecond decay times of 0.95 and 6.86 ns, a high sensitivity to low-energy X-ray (30 keV) with a low detection limit (187 nGyair/s), and a favorable linearity detection range, potentially enabling their broad application in X-ray imaging. Under 237Np α particle irradiation, the light yield of Cs4PbI6 SCs is about 49.5% of that of a BGO scintillator with an energy resolution of 35% at 4.78 MeV. Our results demonstrate the potential of Cs4PbI6 SCs as a nanosecond and low-cost scintillator in radiation detection applications.
ABSTRACT
Time response and light yield are two of the most important features of a scintillation detector, and are mostly determined by the luminescence properties of the scintillator. Here we have investigated the radioluminescence (RL) characteristics of a single-crystalline hybrid lead halide perovskite at both room temperature and low temperature. A dual-channel single photon correlation (DCSPC) system with a vacuum chamber is employed for the measurement. A rise time faster than 100 ps and several times enhancement of the crystal scintillation performances at low temperature have been observed. These behaviors demonstrated that bulk solution-grown single crystals of hybrid lead halide perovskites (MAPbCl3 and Br-doped MAPbBr0.08Cl2.92, where MA = CH3NH3) can serve as stable scintillating materials for pulsed gamma detectors. In addition, this work provides a pathway for perovskite application and also attracts attention to investigating low-temperature scintillators.
ABSTRACT
A detector based on the plastic scintillator film with large-area photonic crystals has been designed and demonstrated for measuring pulsed neutron flux. Compared with the reference detector, the neutron sensitivity and the gamma sensitivity of the detector using the scintillator film with photonic crystals were enhanced by more than 20%, which is attributed to the improved light extraction efficiency and the controllable angular profile of scintillation light by the photonic crystal. The application of the photonic crystals is beneficial to the improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio of the detector in the calibration experiment, thus expanding the lower limit of the measurable neutron flux without sacrificing the ratio of the neutron sensitivity to the gamma sensitivity. This research indicates that photonic crystals play an important role in the fields where scintillation photons need to be extracted and collected as many as possible.
ABSTRACT
It is intuitively expected that an enhanced light extraction of a scintillator can be easily achieved by photonic crystal structures. Here, we demonstrate a modified timing characteristic for a detection system induced by enhanced light extraction with photonic crystal structures. Such improvement is due to the enhanced light extraction which can be clearly proven by the independent measurements of the light output and the timing resolution. The present investigation is advantageous to promote the development of a scintillation detection system performance based on the time-of-flight measurement.
ABSTRACT
Silicon carbide radiation detectors are attractive in the measurement of the total numbers of pulsed fast neutrons emitted from nuclear fusion and fission devices because of high neutron-gamma discrimination and good radiation resistance. A fast-neutron detection system was developed based on a large-area 4H-SiC Schottky diode detector and a 235U fission target. Excellent pulse-height spectra of fission fragments induced by mono-energy deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion neutrons and continuous energy fission neutrons were obtained. The detector is proven to be a good candidate for pulsed fast neutron detection in a complex radiation field.
ABSTRACT
A new compact magnetic proton recoil (MPR) neutron spectrometer has been designed for precise measurement of deuterium-tritium (DT) neutrons. This design is presented emphasizing the magnetic analyzing system, which is based on a compact quadrupole-dipole (QD) electromagnet. The focal plane detector (FPD) is also discussed with respect to application for the next step. The characteristics of the MPR spectrometer were calculated by using Monte Carlo simulation. A preliminary experiment was performed to test the magnetic analyzing system and the proton images of the FPD. Since the QD electromagnet design allows for a larger foil thickness and solid angle to be utilized, the MPR spectrometer defined in this paper can achieve neutron detection efficiency more than 5 × 10(-7) at an energy resolution of 1.5% for measuring DT neutrons.
