Preparation and scintillation properties of translucent LiCaBO3:Ce polycrystalline plates

Translucent LiCaBO3:Ce thin plates were prepared by liquid phase sintering using LiBO2 as a sintering aid, and their fluorescent and scintillation properties were investigated to examine the possibility to use as neutron scintillator. Since the initial part of the directionally solidified specimen contained a second phase of Ca3B2O6, LiCaBO3 may melt incongruently, and simple melt growth of LiCaBO3:Ce is consequently difficult. Translucent thin plates 300 μm in thickness were successfully fabricated from LiCaBO3:Ce sintered compacts. Although strong fluorescence with the peak wavelength of 390 nm was observed in photoluminescence measurement, scintillation light yield and detection efficiency by α-particle irradiation were rather poor. The diffuse reflectance spectrum of LiCaBO3:Ce revealed existence of an absorption band other than Ce3+ bands in the ultraviolet region. The band may corresponds to defect levels, which interrupt the energy transfer from the conduction band of the host to the 5d level of Ce3+ resulting in the degradation of the scintillation performance.