Inorganic scintillating materials and scintillation detectors

Abstract

Scintillation materials and detectors that are used in many applications, such as medical imaging, security, oil-logging, high energy physics and non-destructive inspection, are reviewed. The fundamental physics understood today is explained, and common scintillators and scintillation detectors are introduced. The properties explained here are light yield, energy non-proportionality, emission wavelength, energy resolution, decay time, effective atomic number and timing resolution. For further understanding, the emission mechanisms of scintillator materials are also introduced. Furthermore, unresolved problems in scintillation phenomenon are considered, and my recent interpretations are discussed. These topics include positive hysteresis, the co-doping of non-luminescent ions, the introduction of an aimed impurity phase, the excitation density effect and the complementary relationship between scintillators and storage phosphors.

The Bright X‐Ray Stimulated Luminescence of HfO2 Nanocrystals Activated by Ti Ions

“…Scintillation decays in the hundreds of ns range or shorter are typically considered necessary for real‐time dosimetry, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging detectors, and high‐energy physics. Longer times occurring between the ionizing radiation absorption and radiative recombination are, instead, suitable for X‐ray screens for several diagnosis and therapy treatments, where a timely emission is not mandatory …”

Optical and Scintillation Properties of YAlO3 Doped with Rare-Earths Emitting Near-infrared Photons

“…Inorganic scintillators are fluorescent materials that rapidly convert ionizing radiation to several thousands of low-energy photons. (1) They have been used widely in various fields such as medical imaging, (2) security, (3) environmental monitoring, (4) and high-energy physics. (5) Most of the recently developed inorganic scintillators consist of a host material and an emission center.…”

Comparative Studies of Scintillation Properties of Tl-based Crystals

“…Phosphor materials have played an important role in radiation detection, (1,2) and they are mainly classified into two types, scintillators and storage phosphors. Scintillators have widespread applications, such as radiation therapy, (3) well logging, (4) environmental monitoring, (5) and astrophysics, (6) particle physics.…”