Preliminary results on development of a thin GSO scintillator for neutron science

Abstract

A thin GSO scintillator was developed aiming at applications for the neutron science. In order to fabricate a large and thin GSO scintillator in the future, fabrication was started from two types of GSO powders. Although several GSO films were fabricated by evaporation techniques, these films did not have luminescence in photo luminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Thus, these samples were annealed up to 1550°C. However, it resulted in no luminescence observation. In response to these results, GSO powders were directly annealed; a phenomenon looking like melting and sintering were observed for Gd 2Si 2O 7:Ce at a temperature higher than 1500°C. This sample was quasi-transparent and had luminescence at 405 nm in PL spectrum. In addition, this sample was tougher than a GSO single crystal. In conclusion, the prospect of fabrication of a thin GSO scintillator by combination of annealing and mechanical polishing was obtained.