RARE EARTH HALIDE SCINTILLATION MATERIAL

Abstract

The present invention relates to a rare earth halide scintillating material. The material has a general chemical formula La.sub.1-xCe.sub.xBr.sub.3+y, wherein 0.001x1, and 0.0001y0.1. The rare earth halide scintillating material involved in the present invention has excellent scintillation properties of high light output, high energy resolution, and fast decay.

Claims

1. A rare earth halide scintillation material, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material has a chemical formula of La.sub.1-xCe.sub.xBr.sub.3+y, wherein 0.001≤x≤1, 0.0001≤y≤0.1.

2. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 1, wherein 0.005≤x≤0.1, 0.001≤y≤0.05.

3. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 1, wherein x=1, 0.001≤y≤0.05.

4. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 1, wherein the described rare earth halide scintillation material contains Ce.sup.3+ and Ce.sup.4+ simultaneously.

5. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 1, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is a single crystal.

6. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 1, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for crystal growth.

7. A scintillation detector, comprising the rare earth halide scintillation material of the claim 1.

8. A PET scanning imager, comprising the scintillation detector of claim 7.

9. A gamma energy spectrometer, comprising the scintillation detector of claim 7.

10. An oil logging instrument or a lithology scanning imager, comprising the scintillation detector of claim 7.

11. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 2, wherein the described rare earth halide scintillation material contains Ce.sup.3+ and Ce.sup.4+ simultaneously.

12. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 2, wherein the described rare earth halide scintillation material contains Ce.sup.3+ and Ce.sup.4+ simultaneously.

13. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 2, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is a single crystal.

14. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 3, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is a single crystal.

15. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 4, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is a single crystal.

16. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 2, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for crystal growth.

17. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 3, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for crystal growth.

18. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 4, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for crystal growth.

19. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 5, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for crystal growth.

20. The scintillation detector, comprising the rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 7, wherein 0.005≤x≤0.1, 0.001≤y≤0.05.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0020] To further clarify the objective, technical solutions, and advantages of the present invention, a more detailed description of the invention will be conducted by reference to specific embodiments thereof. It should be understood that these descriptions are exemplary only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Additionally, the descriptions of well-known structures and techniques are omitted in the following explanation in order to avoid undesirable confusion of the concepts of the present invention.

[0021] The first aspect of the present invention provides a rare earth halide scintillation material. The general chemical formula of the rare earth halide scintillation material is: La.sub.1-xCe.sub.xBr.sub.3+y, wherein 0.001≤x≤1, 0.0001≤y≤0.1.

[0022] In a further embodiment, 0.005≤x≤0.1, 0.001≤y≤0.05. In a further embodiment, preferably, x=1, 0.001≤y≤0.05.

[0023] The above rare earth halide scintillation material may be in the form of powder, ceramic, or single crystal, but is preferably applied in a single crystal form, and the single crystal can be obtained by the Bridgman method.

[0024] A significant feature of the present invention is that the rare earth halide scintillation material provided hereby contains both Ce.sup.3+ and Ce.sup.4+, with the apparent valence state of Ce ions between +3 and +4. The present invention is intended to improve the performance of the rare earth halide scintillation material by adjusting the ratio of rare earth ions to halogen ions and modulating the proportion of Ce.sup.4+.

[0025] The present invention can further improve the doping modification of LaBr.sub.3:Ce crystals, and solve the problems of easy incurrence of growth defects and poor consistency in the scintillation performance caused by doping heterogeneous alkaline earth metal ions in LaBr.sub.3:Ce crystals in the existing doping scheme. According to the embodiments of the present invention, the halogen ions in LaBr.sub.3:Ce are excessive, deviating from its stoichiometric ratio of 3:1 with rare earth ions, inducing a portion of Ce.sup.3+ to be converted into Ce.sup.4+ based on charge balance, thereby improving the uniformity of crystal performance and effectively avoiding the problems of crystal growth defects and uneven segregation caused by heterogeneous doping.

[0026] According to the embodiments of the present invention, the following methods are employed to obtain the rare earth halide scintillation material having the chemical formula of La.sub.1-xCe.sub.xBr.sub.3+y.

[0027] Method 1: The anhydrous LaBr.sub.3 and CeBr.sub.3 feedstock used to grow LaBr.sub.3:Ce crystals is heated in an environment containing Br.sub.2 vapor, which absorbs a small amount of Br.sub.2 vapor so that the molar ratio of Br to rare earth ions in the feedstock is greater than the stoichiometric ratio of 3:1. By controlling the Br.sub.2 vapor concentration and the heating time, lanthanum bromide and cerium bromide feedstock with a different surplus of Br can be obtained. This Br-rich lanthanum bromide and cerium bromide feedstock can be employed to grow single crystal to obtain the rare earth halide scintillation materials with the chemical formula La.sub.1-xCe.sub.xBr.sub.3+y described in the present invention.

[0028] Method 2: The stoichiometric LaBr.sub.3 and CeBr.sub.3 feedstock is employed to grow the LaBr.sub.3:Ce crystals conforming to the stoichiometric ratio. Then the crystals are annealed in a dry inert gas (e.g., Ar gas) containing a portion of Br.sub.2 vapor so that Br in the LaBr.sub.3:Ce crystals exceeds the stoichiometric ratio, obtaining the rare earth halide scintillation material having the chemical formula of La.sub.1-xCe.sub.xBr.sub.3+y as described in the present invention.

[0029] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the rare earth halide scintillation material obtained by the present invention has excellent scintillation properties. Its comprehensive performance is significantly better than that of the conventional undoped cerium bromide crystal, the uniformity of the crystal is significantly better than that of the cerium bromide crystal doped with alkaline earth metal ion, and the growth yield of the crystal is also significantly increased.

[0030] It is found that favorable implementation results can also be achieved when the technical idea of the present invention is applied to other Ce-activated rare earth halide scintillation materials.

[0031] It should be noted that the surplus y of Br ions in the present invention is limited to a relatively small range. In the present invention, the range of Br ion surplus is 0.0001≤y≤0.1, preferably 0.001≤y≤0.05. Within the range of the present invention, the crystals are colorless or light yellow and have excellent scintillation properties. However, an excessively high surplus of Br ions will cause the crystals to appear more pronounced yellow, and cause problems such as decreased light yield, poor energy resolution and prolonged decay time.

[0032] The present invention also relates to a scintillation detector comprising the above mentioned rare earth halide scintillation material, as well as PET scanners, gamma energy spectrometers, oil logging instruments or lithology scanning imagers comprising the scintillation detector.

[0033] The favorable effects of the present invention will be further illustrated below with reference to specific embodiments.

[0034] Comparative Example 1: 119.89 g of anhydrous LaBr.sub.3 (99.99%) and 6.33 g of anhydrous CeBr.sub.3 (99.99%) are accurately weighed in an Ar-filled glovebox. After mixed uniformly, they are loaded into a quartz crucible with the diameter of 25 mm. After the quartz crucible is taken out of the glovebox, it is immediately connected to the vacuum system to be vacuumized. Its opening is sealed by combustion when the vacuum degree reaches 1×10.sup.−3 Pa. The quartz crucible is placed in a Bridgman crystal furnace for single crystal growth. The temperature of the high temperature zone is 850° C. and the temperature of the low temperature zone is 700° C. The temperature gradient of the gradient zone is about 10° C./cm, the crucible descending rate is 0.5-2 mm/h and the total growth time is about 15 days. The obtained crystals are transparent and colorless with a length of about 5 cm. The crystal is cut and processed in the glovebox into a cylindrical sample of Φ25 mm×25 mm for tests on the light yield, decay time and energy resolution and for analysis of the crystal composition.

[0035] Comparative Example 2: 119.89 g of anhydrous LaBr.sub.3 (99.99%), 6.33 g of anhydrous CeBr.sub.3 (99.99%) and 0.041 g of anhydrous SrBr.sub.2 (99.99%) are accurately weighed in an Ar-filled glovebox. After mixed uniformly, they are loaded into a quartz crucible with the diameter of 25 mm. Other operations are the same as those in Comparative Example 1.

[0036] Example 1: 119.89 g of anhydrous LaBr.sub.3 (99.99%) and 6.33 g of anhydrous CeBr.sub.3 (99.99%) are accurately weighed in an Ar-filled glovebox. After mixed uniformly, they are loaded into a quartz crucible with the diameter of 25 mm. Other operations are the same as those in Comparative Example 1.

[0037] Examples 2-7: Except for the different ratio of raw materials, the other operations are the same as those in Example 1.

[0038] The detailed comparisons of all examples are shown in Table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Light Decay Energy Yield Time Resolution Ex. Chemical Formula (ph/MeV) (ns) (@662 keV) Comparative La.sub.0.95Ce.sub.0.05Br.sub.3 56000 32 3.2% Example 1 Comparative La.sub.0.95Sr.sub.0.0005Ce.sub.0.05Br.sub.3.001 62000 30 2.7% Example 2 Example1 La.sub.0.95Ce.sub.0.05Br.sub.3.005 75000 18 2.0% Example 2 La.sub.0.995Ce.sub.0.005Br.sub.3.0005 65000 25 2.5% Example 3 La.sub.0.8Ce.sub.0.2Br.sub.3.1 66000 17 2.6% Examplet 4 CeBr.sub.3.05 64000 16 3.5% Example 5 La.sub.0.5Ce.sub.0.5Br.sub.3.02 65000 18 2.8% Example 6 La.sub.0.9Ce.sub.0.1Br.sub.3.001 72000 24 2.2% Example 7 La.sub.0.999Ce.sub.0.001Br.sub.3.0001 64000 23 2.5%

[0039] To sum up, the present invention provides a rare earth halide scintillation material having a chemical formula of La.sub.1-xCe.sub.xBr.sub.3+y wherein 0.001≤x≤1, 0.0001≤y≤0.1. The rare earth halide scintillation materials obtained by the present invention have excellent scintillation performance. Its comprehensive performance is significantly better than that of the conventional undoped lanthanum bromide crystal, the uniformity of the crystal is significantly better than that of the lanthanum bromide crystal doped with alkaline earth metal ion, and the growth yield of the crystal is also significantly increased.

[0040] It is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description of the present invention has been presented only for exemplary illustrations and explanations of the principles of the present invention, and not for the purpose of limiting the invention. Accordingly, any modifications, equivalent replacements and improvements, etc. which are made with the spirit and scope of the present invention, are supposed to be included within the protection scope of the present invention. Further, the appended claims of the present invention are intended to cover all such modifications and changes which fall within the scope and bound of the appended claims, or their equivalents.