Crystal growth and characterization of alkali-earth halide scintillators

Alkali-earth halide scintillators have received much attention in the last 2 years due to their high luminosity close to the theoretical limit. We present a summary of the knowledge acquired to date that is relevant to scintillation applications. Progress achieved in the synthesis, growth and performance of these scintillators, specially the Ba mixed halides (such as BaBrI and BaBrCl) and the family of compounds made by combining Cs and Ba halides in various stoichiometries are presented.

► We have reviewed and further studied the formation of ternary compounds in Ba and Sr halides.
► We present the scintillation properties of 6 of Ba mixed halides activated with Eu.
► We present 10 ternary compounds of the complex systems (Ba or Sr)-Cs halides.
► We present the scintillation properties of 8 of them activated with Eu.
► We confirm CsBa2I5:Eu and BaBrI:Eu are the best scintillator of these classes of compounds.