Scintillation properties of Eu:BaFBr crystal

Eu:BaFBr is typically used in a ceramic form for imaging plate, and it has not been commonly studied in a single crystal form and for scintillator applications. In this study, we prepared Eu:BaFBr single crystal by the Bridgeman method and then evaluated the scintillation properties. The crystal showed an intense scintillation emission spectrum under X-ray excitation with a peak appeared at 395 nm due to the 5d-4f transitions of divalent Eu ion, and the scintillation decay time under X-ray irradiation was 1.4 μs. When we irradiated with γ-rays by 137Cs, a clear photoabsorption peak was observed in the pulse height spectrum, and the scintillation light yield was estimated to be 27000 ph/MeV. By using various radio isotopes, we investigated the relation between peak channels of photoabsorption peak and γ-ray energy, and we confirmed a linear relationship from 60 keV to 1.27 MeV. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of Eu:BaFBr crystal demonstrating as a scintillator for γ-ray detections.