Scintillation properties of semiconducting 6LiInSe2 crystals to ionizing radiation

Abstract

6LiInSe2 has gained attention recently as a semiconducting thermal neutron detector. As presented herein, the chalcogenide compound semiconductor also detects incident neutrons via scintillation, making 6LiInSe2 the only lithium containing semiconductor to respond to neutrons via both detection mechanisms. Both yellow and red crystals, which appear in the literature, were investigated. Only the yellow crystal responded favorably to ionizing radiation, similar to the semiconducting operation utilizing electrodes. The obtained light yield for yellow crystals is 4400 photons/MeV, referenced to Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO).The estimated thermal neutron light yield was 21,000 photons/thermal neutron. The two measured decay time components were found to be 31±1ns (49%) and 143±9ns (51%).This crystal provides efficient, robust detection of neutrons via scintillation with respectable light yield and rapid response, enabling its use for a broad array of neutron detection applications.