An Efficient and Practical Method for New Bright Scintillator Searching

75173-Current scintillator materials do not fully satisfy the requirements for high and intermediate energy particle/photon detection, needed to support the monitoring and verification of the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty and other international arms control agreements. Due to intrinsic deficiencies in scintillation properties or difficulties in materials fabrication, next generation scintillators must have brighter scintillation, higher resolution, faster response, larger detection area, and lower cost. This project will utilize a low cost, comprehensive searching/screening method to develop a bright scintillator/bulk material system with optimized doping concentration, low scattering induced loss, and improved optical and scintillation characteristics. In Phase I, a unique material synthesis method will be utilized to search/screen next generation bright scintillators, leading to the establishment of major components of a materials library that contains critical information about scintillation-related characteristics. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: A new generation of bright scintillation materials should greatly benefit DOE¿s high energy missions, such as high energy particle detection (heavy ions, electrons, and nuclei) and intermediate energy phonon imaging (UV-radiation, X- and ?- rays, and ?-particles). Military and homeland security applications also should benefit. Finally, in medical radiography applications such as X-ray topography and microradiography; patients and doctors would receive much less radiation dosage when high efficient bright scintillator materials are used.