Purification and crystal growth of TlBr for application as a radiation detector

摘要

Thallium bromide is a semiconductor compound with high atomic number and density. It has a CsCl-type simple cubic crystal structure and it is non-hygroscopics. The TlBr crystals are relatively soft with a knoop hardness number of 12. In this work, the TlBr commercial powder was purified by zone refining and the purest material section was used for crystal growth by Bridgman method. Efforts have been concentrated on the purification of the TlBr. The purification efficiency has been evaluated (NAA and ICP-MS) by impurities reduction results after zone refining passes. The crystalline quality was evaluated by X-ray diffraction. The characterized TIBr crystal as a detector has shown good response to gamma radiation. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.