Development of novel growth methods for halide single crystals

We developed novel growth methods for halide scintillator single crystals with hygroscopic nature, Halide micro-pulling-down [H-μ-PD] method and Halide Vertical Bridgman [H-VB] method. The H-μ-PD method with a removable chamber system can grow a single crystal of halide scintillator material with hygroscopicity at faster growth rate than the conventional methods. On the other hand, the H-VB method can grow a large bulk single crystal of halide scintillator without a quartz ampule. CeCl3, LaBr3, Ce:LaBr3 and Eu:SrI2 fiber single crystals could be grown by the H-μ-PD method and Eu:SrI2 bulk single crystals of 1 and 1.5 inch in diameter could be grown by the H-VB method. The grown fiber and bulk single crystals showed comparable scintillation properties to the previous reports using the conventional methods.