Barium fluoride: a new scintillation detector material

Barium fluoride exhibits at least two light output components. A fast component appears with low intensity at 220nm with decay constant of 0.6ns, while the slow one appears with comparatively more intensity at 310 nm with a decay constant of 600 ns. This property of the material can be exploited for the measurement of both energy as well as timing spectroscopy. BARC has been actively involved in the growth and characterisation of barium fluoride crystals during past few years. Crystals measuring 40 mm dia and 30 mm long have been grown in the high temperature high vacuum furnace using Bridgmann technique. The crystals grown have been characterised for impurity analyses, UV transmission and gamma ray spectra measurements. Improvement in the transmission in the UV region, scintillation characteristics, are the areas in which the work is being carried out. It is also being planned to shift the scintillation wavelength to the near visible range so that more conventional PMTs can be used. (author). 20 refs., 3 tabs