The effect of material purity on the optical and scintillation properties of solution-grown trans-stilbene crystals

Large, 10 cm-size, single crystals of trans-stilbene were grown for the first time from solution by a temperature reduction technique. Their scintillation performance for fast neutron detection depended on the purity of the initial starting material. A light-yield-inhibitor-free starting material was specially synthesized and crystals from this material were compared to those grown from commercially available powders of trans-stilbene. The use of pure material made possible the growth of the large size crystals (>400 g) with excellent neutron–gamma discrimination performance, which are needed for use as a radiation detection material.

► 10 cm-size crystals of stilbene were grown from solution by temperature reduction.
► High purity light-yield-inhibitor-free material was synthesized for crystal growth.
► Solution and melt-grown stilbene crystals have similar scintillation performance.