Scintillation properties of cerium-doped lanthanum fluoride.

摘要

We report on the scintillation properties of cerium-doped lanthanum fluoride (LaF(sub 3)), a newly discovered dense (5.9 g/cm(sup 3)) heavy atom scintillator. We have investigated four dopant concentrations (0.01%, 1%, 10% and 50% mole fraction of CeF(sub 3)), measuring the emission spectrum, light output, and decay time distribution. The light output increases with increasing cerium concentration until a maximum of 2200 photons/MeV is reached at 10% CeF(sub 3), then decreases to 1900 photons/MeV at 50% CeF(sub 3). The emission spectrum depends on concentration, but consists of a pair of peaks centered at approximately 300 nm and 350 nm, with the lower cerium concentrations having a greater fraction of 300 nm emissions. The decay time distribution is well described by the sum of 3 exponential components: 3.0 ns, 26.5 ns, and a dopant dependent long component that varies between 185 ns and 275 ns. The fraction of the 3.0 ns fast component increases from 10% at 50% cerium to 15% at 1% cerium and the fraction of the long component increases from 3% at 50% cerium to 21% at 1% cerium. There is hope that a different cerium doping fraction or different host crystal would increase the intensity of these 3 ns emissions. 13 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.