Organic crystals
Organic scintillators are aromatic hydrocarbon compounds which contain benzene ring structures interlinked in various ways. Their luminescence typically decays within a few nanoseconds.
Some organic scintillators are pure crystals. The most common types are anthracene(C14H10, decay time ≈30 ns), stilbene(C14H12, 4.5 ns decay time), and naphthalene (C10H8, few ns decay time). They are very durable, but their response is anisotropic (which spoils energy resolution when the source is not collimated), and they cannot be easily machined, nor can they be grown in large sizes; hence they are not very often used. Anthracene has the highest light output of all organic scintillators and is therefore chosen as a reference: the light outputs of other scintillators are sometimes expressed as a percent of anthracene light.
Organic liquids
These are liquid solutions of one or more organic scintillators in an organic solvent. The typical solutes are fluors such as p-terphenyl (C18H14), PBD (C20H14N2O), butyl PBD (C24H22N2O), PPO (C15H11NO), and wavelength shifter such as POPOP (C24H16N2O). The most widely used solvents are toluene, xylene, benzene, phenylcyclohexane, triethylbenzene, and decalin. Liquid scintillators are easily loaded with other additives such as wavelength shifters to match the spectral sensitivity range of a particular PMT, or 10B to increase the neutron detection efficiency of the scintillation counter itself (since 10B has a high interaction cross section with thermal neutrons). For many liquids, dissolved oxygen can act as a quenching agent and lead to reduced light output, hence the necessity to seal the solution in an oxygen-free, airtight enclosure.
Plastic scintillators
The term “plastic scintillator” typically refers to a scintillating material in which the primary fluorescent emitter, called a fluor, is suspended in the base, a solid polymer matrix. While this combination is typically accomplished through the dissolution of the fluor prior to bulk polymerization, the fluor is sometimes associated with the polymer directly, either covalently or through coordination, as is the case with many Li6 plastic scintillators. Polyethylene naphthalate has been found to exhibit scintillation by itself without any additives and is expected to replace existing plastic scintillators due to higher performance and lower price. The advantages of plastic scintillators include fairly high light output and a relatively quick signal, with a decay time of 2–4 nanoseconds, but perhaps the biggest advantage of plastic scintillators is their ability to be shaped, through the use of molds or other means, into almost any desired form with what is often a high degree of durability. Plastic scintillators are known to show light output saturation when the energy density is large (Birks’ Law).
Bases
The most common bases used in plastic scintillators are the aromatic plastics, polymers with aromatic rings as pendant groups along the polymer backbone, amongst which polyvinyltoluene (PVT) and polystyrene (PS) are the most prominent. While the base does fluoresce in the presence of ionizing radiation, its low yield and negligible transparency to its own emission make the use of fluors necessary in the construction of a practical scintillator. Aside from the aromatic plastics, the most common base is polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), which carries two advantages over many other bases: high ultraviolet and visible light transparency and mechanical properties and higher durability with respect to brittleness. The lack of fluorescence associated with PMMA is often compensated through the addition of an aromatic co-solvent, usually naphthalene. A plastic scintillator based on PMMA in this way boasts transparency to its own radiation, helping to ensure uniform collection of light.
Other common bases include polyvinyl xylene (PVX) polymethyl, 2,4-dimethyl, 2,4,5-trimethyl styrenes, polyvinyl diphenyl, polyvinyl naphthalene, polyvinyl tetrahydronaphthalene, and copolymers of these and other bases.
Fluors
Also known as luminophors, these compounds absorb the scintillation of the base and then emit at larger wavelength, effectively converting the ultraviolet radiation of the base into the more easily transferred visible light. Further increasing the attenuation length can be accomplished through the addition of a second fluor, referred to as a spectrum shifter or converter, often resulting in the emission of blue or green light.
Common fluors include polyphenyl hydrocarbons, oxazole and oxadiazole aryls, especially, n-terphenyl (PPP), 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO), 1,4-di-(5-phenyl-2-oxazolyl)-benzene (POPOP), 2-phenyl-5-(4-biphenylyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD), and 2-(4’-tert-butylphenyl)-5-(4’’-biphenylyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (B-PBD).
Inorganic crystals
Inorganic scintillators are usually crystals grown in high temperature furnaces, for example, alkali metal halides, often with a small amount of activator impurity. The most widely used is NaI(Tl) (thallium-doped sodium iodide); its scintillation light is blue. Other inorganic alkali halide crystals are: CsI(Tl), CsI(Na), CsI(pure), CsF, KI(Tl), LiI(Eu). Some non-alkali crystals include: BaF2, CaF2(Eu), ZnS(Ag), CaWO4, CdWO4, YAG(Ce) (Y3Al5O
12(Ce)), GSO, LSO. (For more examples, see also phosphors).
Newly developed products include LaCl3(Ce), lanthanum chloride doped with cerium, as well as a cerium-doped lanthanum bromide, LaBr3(Ce). They are both very hygroscopic (i.e., damaged when exposed to moisture in the air) but offer excellent light output and energy resolution (63 photons/keV for LaBr3(Ce) versus 38 photons/keV γ for NaI(Tl)), a fast response (16 ns for LaBr3(Ce) versus 230 ns for NaI(Tl)[9]), excellent linearity, and a very stable light output over a wide range of temperatures. In addition LaBr3(Ce) offers a higher stopping power for γ rays (density of 5.08 g/cm3 versus 3.67 g/cm3 for NaI(Tl)[9]). LYSO (Lu1.8Y0.2SiO5(Ce)) has an even higher density (7.1 g/cm3, comparable to BGO), is non-hygroscopic, and has a higher light output than BGO (32 photons/keV γ), in addition to being rather fast (41 ns decay time versus 300 ns for BGO).
A disadvantage of some inorganic crystals, e.g., NaI, is their hygroscopicity, a property which requires them to be housed in an airtight container to protect them from moisture. CsI(Tl) and BaF2 are only slightly hygroscopic and do not usually need protection. CsF, NaI(Tl), LaCl3(Ce), LaBr3(Ce) are hygroscopic, while BGO, CaF2(Eu), LYSO, and YAG(Ce) are not.
Inorganic crystals can be cut to small sizes and arranged in an array configuration so as to provide position sensitivity. Such arrays are often used in medical physics or security applications to detect X-rays or γ rays: high-Z, high density materials (e.g. LYSO, BGO) are typically preferred for this type of applications.
Scintillation in inorganic crystals is typically slower than in organic ones, ranging typically from 1.48 ns for ZnO(Ga) to 9000 ns for CaWO4. Exceptions are CsF} (~5 ns), fast BaF2 (0.7 ns; the slow component is at 630 ns), as well as the newer products (LaCl3(Ce), 28 ns; LaBr3(Ce), 16 ns; LYSO, 41 ns).
Gaseous scintillators
Gaseous scintillators consist of nitrogen and the noble gases helium, argon, krypton, and xenon, with helium and xenon receiving the most attention. The scintillation process is due to the de-excitation of single atoms excited by the passage of an incoming particle. This de-excitation is very rapid (~1 ns), so the detector response is quite fast. Coating the walls of the container with a wavelength shifter is generally necessary as those gases typically emit in the ultraviolet and PMTs respond better to the visible blue-green region. In nuclear physics, gaseous detectors have been used to detect fission fragments or heavy charged particles.
Glasses
The most common glass scintillators are cerium-activated lithium or boron silicates. Since both lithium and boron have large neutron cross-sections, glass detectors are particularly well suited to the detection of thermal (slow) neutrons. Lithium is more widely used than boron since it has a greater energy release on capturing a neutron and therefore greater light output. Glass scintillators are however sensitive to electrons and γ rays as well (pulse height discrimination can be used for particle identification). Being very robust, they are also well-suited to harsh environmental conditions. Their response time is ≈10 ns, their light output is however low, typically ≈30% of that of anthracene.
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