Characterization of BaCl 2 scintillation crystal at low temperature

Abstract

A BaCl 2 scintillation crystal was grown by the Czochralski method. The grown crystal was cut to a size of 10×10×5 mm 3. The scintillation properties of the crystal such as pulse height spectra, energy resolution, and fluorescence decay time were measured with a 137Cs (662 keV) γ-ray source at room temperature. We measured the temperature dependence of the scintillation light yield and decay time with a bi-alkali photomultiplier tube for the BaCl 2 crystal. The BaCl 2 crystal was cooled down with compressed helium gas from room temperature to 10 K. We measured the light yield and decay time changes of the BaCl 2 crystal from 10 K to room temperature. The light yield of the BaCl 2 at 200 K was four times higher than that at room temperature. The decay time increases as temperature decreases. The BaCl 2 scintillation crystal has a low light yield but a fast decay time so that it can be a calorimeter candidate for high energy physics experiments.