The effect of LaBr₃:Ce single crystal aliovalent co-doping on its mechanical strength

Lanthanum bromide cerium doped single crystals are a transparent scintillator material that offers outstanding scintillation properties with high light yield, excellent energy resolution, fast emission and excellent proportionality. Although properly packaged detectors are robust enough to withstand operating conditions during geophysical oil logging operations, the material itself is brittle and exhibits low fracture toughness. We attempted to modify the composition of the crystals through aliovalent co-doping by Ba, Ca, Hf, Sr, Zn and Zr. These elements have been added in concentrations from 100 ppm to 5000 ppm to the growth bath. Ratio of co-doping in the crystalline matrices ranged from no incorporation (for Hf, Zn, and Zr) up to 200 ppm for Sr and 10–20 ppm for Ca. The effect of the aliovalent co-doping on the mechanical properties of the crystals and in particular on their mechanical strength, hardness and toughness has been measured. As the crystals are extremely hygroscopic this demanded designing customized experiments in anhydrous environment in order to obtain reliable and accurate results. The ultimate strength has been measured by four points bending. Hardness has been measured by indentation and by the same technique we attempted to have some information on the fracture toughness. No improvement of the mechanical properties of the co-doped crystals with respect to the reference standard lanthanum bromide cerium doped could be found