Ce3+-activated Tl2GdCl5: Novel halide scintillator for X-ray and γ-ray detection

Luminescence and scintillation properties of the Tl2GdCl5: Ce3+(5%) crystal are reported in this study. The luminescence properties are studied under the excitation of X-rays. An intense Ce3+ emission is observed in the range of 350-500 nm with a peak at 389 nm. Scintillation properties including light output, decay time, and energy resolution, are studied under the excitation of 662-keV gamma-rays from a Cs-137 source. A light output of 53,000 +/- 5000 photons/MeV and energy resolution of 5% full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) are obtained at room temperature. The decay-time analysis reveals three exponential decay time constants of 32 ns (76%), 271 ns (10%), and 1.6 ms (14%). Owing to its high effective atomic number (Z(eff) = 71) and high density (rho = 5.10 g/cm(3)), the grown crystal exhibits a higher detection efficiency for X-and gamma-rays. These findings reveal that the proposed compound could be employed for the development of radiation scintillation detector for various applications. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.