Crystal growth and scintillation properties of NdF3 single crystal

NdF3 single crystal was efficiently grown from the melt by the micro-pulling-down (μ-PD) method. The grown crystal had a single-phase confirmed by XRD and showed a highly symmetric peak by XRC. Then optical properties and α-ray excited scintillation properties in Vacuum Ultraviolet (VUV) wavelength region were investigated. It showed 60–80% transmittance down to 170 nm, and broad luminescence centered at 175 nm. The light yield and decay time of it were also evaluated under 5.5 MeV α-ray excitation (241Am). The light yield was evacuated to be 60 ± 6 [Ph/5.5 MeV-α], and the decay time was also evacuated to be 6.9 ns under 5.5 MeV α-ray excitation.