Crystal growth and characterization of mixed elpasolite scintillators Ce:Cs2Li(LaBr6)x(YCl6)1-x (0 < x ≤ 0.4)

Abstract

Over the past two decades, substantial research has been done on the typical elpasolite scintillators Ce:Cs2LiYCl6 (CLYC) and Ce:Cs2LiLaBr6 (CLLB) for their potential use as neutron/gamma dual-mode detectors. Commonly, the cation or anion alloying will change the luminescence and scintillation properties of the scintillators, such as the good energy resolution of the Ce:Cs2LiLa(Br–Cl)6 (CLLBC) crystal. In this work, ⌀8 mm Ce:Cs2Li(LaBr6)x(YCl6)1-x crystals with x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 were grown by the vertical Bridgman technique. Then, ⌀25 mm Ce:Cs2LiLa0.1Y0.9Br0.6Cl5.4 crystal was grown for its relatively high optical quality and phase purity. The luminescence and scintillation properties were also investigated. The energy resolution of Ce:Cs2LiLa0.1Y0.9Br0.6Cl5.4 crystal was calculated to be 9.3%. The scintillation decay time were 38 ns and 623 ns under 137Cs irradiation.