Disclosed herein is a method including disposing in a mold a powder that has a composition for manufacturing a scintillator material and compressing the powder to form the scintillator material; where an exit surface of the scintillator material has a texture that comprises a plurality of projections that reduce total internal reflection at the exit surface and that increase the amount of photons exiting the exit surface by an amount of greater than or equal to 5% over a surface that does not have the projections.

Metal halide scintillators are described. More particularly, the scintillators include doped (e.g., europium-doped) ternary metal halides, such as those of the formulas A.sub.2BX.sub.4 and AB.sub.2X.sub.5, wherein A is an alkali metal, such as Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs or any combination thereof; B is an alkali earth metal, such as Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba or any combination thereof; and X is a halide, such as Cl, Br, I, F or any combination thereof. Radiation detectors comprising the novel metal halide scintillators and other ternary metal halides, such as those of the formulas A.sub.2EuX.sub.4 and AEu.sub.2X.sub.5, wherein A is an alkali metal and X is a halide, are also described.

CaF.sub.2 translucent ceramics includes at least two rare earth elements selected from a group consisting of La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu.

Mixed halide scintillation materials of the general formula AB.sub.(1-y)M.sub.yX.sub.wX.sub.(3-w), where 0y1, 0.05w1, A may be an alkali metal, B may be an alkali earth metal, and X and X may be two different halogen atoms, and of the general formula A.sub.(1-y)BM.sub.yX.sub.wX.sub.(3-w), where 0y1, 0.05w1, A maybe an alkali metal, B may be an alkali earth metal, and X and X are two different halogen atoms. The scintillation materials of formula (1) include a divalent external activator, M, such as Eu.sup.2+ or Yb.sup.2+. The scintillation materials of formula (2) include a monovalent external activator, M, such as Tl.sup.+, Na.sup.+ and In.sup.+.

A core material (102) is contained in a cylindrical container (101) (first step). The container (101) is formed from a thermoplastic cladding material. The container (101) can be formed from a heat resistant glass such as a borosilicate glass, for example. The core material (102) is a halide having a lower melting point than the cladding material. Next, the container (101) containing the core material (102) is heated using a heater (151) and stretched, thereby forming an optical fiber emitter (105) comprising a core (103) formed from a halide crystal, and a cladding (104) formed from the cladding material.

A neutron scintillator excellent in neutron detection efficiency and n/ discrimination ability, having uniform characteristics, and easily available in a large size is provided.

The neutron scintillator comprises a resin composition having eutectic particles incorporated in a resin having a similar refractive index, the eutectic particles having a sphere equivalent diameter of the order of 50 to 1000 m and being composed of lithium fluoride and an inorganic fluorescent material, such as MgF.sub.2, CaF.sub.2 or SrF.sub.2, the inorganic fluorescent material containing a lanthanoid, such as Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm or Yb, as a luminescent center atom.

A phosphor composition is disclosed. A phosphor composition, comprises at least 10 atomic % bromine; silicon, germanium or combination thereof; oxygen; a metal M, wherein M comprises zinc (Zn), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), or combinations thereof; and an activator comprising europium. The phosphor composition is formed from combining carbonate or oxides of metal M, silicon oxide, and europium oxide; and then firing the combination. A lighting apparatus including the phosphor composition is also provided. The phosphor composition may be combined with an additional phosphor to generate white light.

Scintillator materials, as well as related systems, and methods of detection using the same, are described herein. The scintillator material composition may comprise a Tl-based scintillator material. For example, the composition may comprise a thallium-based halide. Such materials have been shown to have particularly attractive scintillation properties and may be used in a variety of applications for detection radiation.

Scintillator compositions comprising lithium, an alkaline earth metal, a halide, and optionally a dopant, and related systems and methods for detecting radiation are disclosed.

Provided is a scintillator material (13) that is excited by radiation rays to emit visible light. The scintillator material (13) has a cristobalite structure obtained by crystallizing a part of silica. A fluorescent material SrI.sub.2:Eu.sup.2+ is incorporated into the cristobalite structure to form a nanocomposite, and the cristobalite structure contains an alkali metal ion.