Improvements in Scintillation Technology for Detection of Nuclear Radiation

High-resolution scintillation crystals and crystal arrays are important components of current and future handheld and arrayed detectors (used for DOD applications) and scintillation spectrometers (routinely used in high energy physics research, medical imaging, diffraction, homeland security, nuclear waste clean-up, nuclear treaty verification and safeguards, and geological exploration). Unfortunately, the properties of current scintillators often limit the performance of such systems, so in order to fulfill the needs of their many exciting and demanding applications, advances in scintillator technology are necessary. Specifically, scintillators that simultaneously produce high light output, high stopping efficiency, fast response, high energy and timing resolution, good proportionality, and low cost are needed. We therefore propose to develop a novel semiconductor scintillator that promises to produce up to a three-fold increase in light yield compared to some of today's brightest scintillators, high gamma ray absorption, fast decay without afterglow, emission in the wavelength range most suitable for readout sensors, and orders of magnitude higher radiation resistance than current scintillators. For large volume, cost effective manufacturing, powder consolidation techniques will be used to fabricate this transparent optical ceramic scintillator. Our Phase I goals include demonstrating the feasibility of growing this ceramic and characterizing its performance relative to current state-of-the-art scintillators.