Scintillation and luminescence properties of a single CsCaCl3 crystal

•We synthesized a fast scintillatior employing Auger-free luminescence (AFL) in a ternary halide crystal.•The decay time constant of the scintillation component due to AFL was 2.3 ns.•The relative intensity of the AFL component was 58% of the total scintillation.•The light output was estimated to be 410 photons/MeV for high-energy X-ray photons.

We synthesized a fast scintillation material based on a ternary halide crystal, CsCaCl3, which is known to exhibit Auger-free luminescence (AFL) under core-level excitation. We characterized its luminescence properties using vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light for excitation. We observed a broad AFL band centered at approximately 300 nm for the core hole excitation, with a decay time of 2.3 ns. In addition to AFL, we observed several luminescence bands for interband and sub-band-gap excitation. The scintillation light yield was estimated to be 410 photons/MeV. We observed a fast scintillation component due to the AFL having a decay time constant of 2.3 ns. This fast component accounts for 58% of the total scintillation. These results indicate that a fast scintillation material was successfully fabricated, employing AFL as the luminescence mechanism based on a ternary halide crystal.