Scintillation Characterizations of Tin Doped Lithium Iodide Crystals at Room and Low Temperature

Abstract

The crystals of 0.02%, 0.05%, 0.1%, and 0.5% Sn doped LiI are grown by the vertical Bridgman technique. The luminescence and scintillation properties of the grown crystals are investigated. X-ray excited emission spectrum of LiI (Sn) showed a broad emission band between 400-650 nm wavelength range at room temperature. Such emission is attributed to Sn2+ ion. Scintillation properties such as energy resolution, decay time profiles, and light yield are measured under 662 keV (137Cs) γ-ray excitation at room temperature. A maximum light yield of 6000 ± 600 ph/MeV is measured at room temperature. LiI (Sn) single crystals showed two exponential decay components under γ-ray excitation. The dependence of scintillation properties on the temperature is also presented. Changes in the decay time and light yield are measured from 295 K down to 10 K. The light yield of LiI (Sn) at 50 K is found to be nine times higher than that at room temperature. © 2016 IEEE