Published January 21, 2005 | Version v1
Journal article

Multiplication of electronic excitations and prospects for increasing scintillation efficiency in wide-gap crystals

  • 1. Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Riia 142, Tartu 51014 (Estonia)
  • 2. Institute of Experimental Physics, Hamburg University, Hamburg D-22761 (Germany)
  • 3. Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund S 22210 (Sweden)

Description

A comparative analysis of the electron-hole (e-h) excitation mechanism of impurity luminescence has been performed for wide-gap oxides (WGO) and alkali halides crystals (AHC). A low quantum yield of scintillation in WGO with respect to that in AHC is connected with the high value of the average energy needed for the creation of an e-h pair in WGO. In AHC and many WGO, the width of a valence band Ev is smaller than the energy gap Eg and hot valence holes are not able to create any secondary e-h pairs. The Ev/Eg ratio that describes 'hole losses' in scintillators is 1.5-2.0 times higher in WGO than in CsI. The scenario of the two-step transformation of an e-h pair or an anion exciton into two emitted photons in α-Al2O3:Mg2+,Ti4+ has been considered

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1016/j.nima.2004.07.229;
PII
S0168-9002(04)01780-2;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Journal Volume
537
Journal Issue
1-2
Journal Page Range
p. 45-49
ISSN
0168-9002
CODEN
NIMAER

Conference

Title
7. international conference on inorganic scintillators and their use in scientific and industrial applications
Acronym
SCINT 2003
Dates
8-12 Sep 2003
Place
Valencia (Spain)

Optional Information

Copyright
Copyright (c) 2004 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.