Measurements of the intrinsic rise times of common inorganic scintillators

The intrinsic rise times of a number of common inorganic scintillators are determined using ultrafast measurements of luminescence following pulsed X-ray excitation. A Ti-sapphire mode-locked laser and a light-excited X-ray tube are used to produce X-ray pulses with 60 ps fwhm. Fluorescence photons...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on nuclear science 2000-06, Vol.47 (3), p.860-864
Main Authors: Derenzo, S.E., Weber, M.J., Moses, W.W., Dujardin, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activated
Crystals
Delay
Electronics
Excitation
Fluorescence
Laser excitation
Laser mode locking
Luminescence
Optical pulses
Photoelectricity
Photonic crystals
Photons
Phototubes
Pulse measurements
Scintillation
X-ray lasers
X-rays
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The intrinsic rise times of a number of common inorganic scintillators are determined using ultrafast measurements of luminescence following pulsed X-ray excitation. A Ti-sapphire mode-locked laser and a light-excited X-ray tube are used to produce X-ray pulses with 60 ps fwhm. Fluorescence photons are detected with a microchannel phototube and the response of the phototube and electronics is 45 ps fwhm. Samples are either powders or thin crystals painted black on five sides to reduce delayed scattered photons. The intrinsic scintillators CeF/sub 3/, CdWO/sub 4/, Bi/sub 4/Ge/sub 3/O/sub 12/, and CsI have rise times /spl les/30 ps, indicating that electrons are promptly captured to form the excited states. The activated scintillators CaF/sub 2/:Eu, ZnO:Ga, and Lu/sub 2/SiO/sub 5/:Ce have rise times /spl les/40 ps, indicating that the luminescent centers are excited by rapid sequential hole capture-electron capture. The activated scintillators CsI:Tl and YAlO/sub 3/:Ce have slower rise times due to processes that delay the formation of excited states. It is shown that for practical scintillation detectors, internal reflections in the crystal can degrade observed rise times by hundreds of ps depending on size, reflector, and index of refraction.
ISSN:0018-9499
1558-1578
DOI:10.1109/23.856531