Czochralski growth of 8 inch size BaF2 single crystal for a fast scintillator

In this work we optimize the growth condition of 8 inch size BaF2 single crystal which could be grown by the Czochralski (Cz) method with the resistive heating system and thermal insulators. Grown crystals were colorless transparent with 205 mm in diameter, 90 mm in length. The variation of the birefringence in the radial direction was 8.7 nm/cm. Grown BaF2 single crystals show good transmittance (>80%) over 200 nm wavelength and super fast decay time of 0.60-0.63 ns. These characteristics indicate the high potential of 8-in. size BaF2 single crystal grown by the Cz method for TOF-PET.