New Approach to Tuning the Scintillation Parameters of PBWO4 Crystals to Expand the Energy Range for γ-ray Detection
摘要
The introduction of strontium ions into lead tungstate PbWO4 (PWO) was shown to permit broad variation of the scintillation light yield, temperature dependence of this yield, and the luminescence kinetics; the strontium ions isomorphically replace lead ions in the crystal lattice. With 10% substitution of the lead ions in the crystal lattice, (Pb,Sr)WO4 has a scintillation light yield of 1000 ph/MeV (ph = photons) and a predominant constant of scintillation decay kinetics of 40 ns, while the temperature dependence of scintillation yield is close to that for the initial PWO material. On the other hand, the scintillation light yield reaches 10,000 ph/MeV in the compound with 80% strontium replacing lead and the decay constant is 600 ns. In this case, the scintillation light yield at 300–400 K is characterized by a temperature coefficient equal to –0.6 K. The compound with 10% strontium is of interest for highenergy physics experiments including spectroscopy starting from 10 MeV without detector cooling. The compound with 80% strontium holds promise for use in spectroscopy for geological exploration and well logging, where work at elevated high temperatures is required.