Cerium compounds as scintillators

Stoichiometric Ce-materials with negligible Ce-Ce interactions should have superior scintillator properties. We present two materials: CeF3 and CexLa1-xP5O14. While cerium trifluoride is a known scintillator, pentaphosphate is of a limited usefulness, except as a remarkable model material. We show that quenching in fluoride is responsible for loss of 50% of the light output and is the cause of the, so-called, ultra fast component (2 ns). Light output of fluoride (about 50% of BGO) could be significantly improved. Deeper understanding of Ce-systems is needed to fully exploit their potentials. 10 figs., 6 refs