Recipe for attaining optimal energy resolution in inorganic scintillators

Abstract

Using an approximate form of the density of excitation created within the track initiated by an incident γ - photon on a scintillator, the light yield is derived as a function of linear, bimolecular and Auger radiative and quenching recombination rates. The non-proportionality in the yield is analysed as a function of the bimolecular and Auger quenching rates and also its dependence on the track radius is studied. An optimal combination of these quenching rates and track radius is presented to obtain a recipe for inventing a scintillator material with optimal energy resolution. The importance of the mobility of charge carriers in minimising the non-proportionality in a scintillator is also discussed. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.