Luminescence and Scintillation Properties of a CeBr$_{3}$ Single Crystal

Abstract

Crystal growth, luminescence, and scintillation properties of a CeBr3 crystal are presented. The crystal was grown with Bridgman method using two-zone transparent furnace and cut to Oslash10 times 10 mm3. The investigation of luminescence and scintillation properties of the CeBr3 was performed under the excitation by ultraviolet and gamma-rays at room temperature. The emission spectrum of the CeBr3 was observed in the range of near ultraviolet to violet, which is due to the 5d rarr 4f transition of Ce3+. The decay time of the Ce3+ emission was measured to be approximately 20 ns. The energy resolution of the CeBr3 single crystal was obtained to be 4.9% for the 137Cs 662 keV gamma-rays. The relative signal of the CeBr3 crystal by the 137Cs gamma-rays is about three times higher than that of a CsI:Tl crystal when a bi-alkali PMT was used. The nonproportionality in the gamma-ray energy of the crystal was also measured. The study showed that the CeBr3 crystal is the promising candidate for the PET application. The CeBr3 crystal with high light output and fast decay time affords its use for the particle detection in a high counting rate environment such as nuclear and high-energy physics.