Luminescence and scintillation properties of Czochralski grown Pr3+ doped Li6Y(BO3)3 single crystal.

The Li 6 Y(BO 3) 3 :Pr3+, an alkali orthoborate compound have been synthesized as polycrystalline powders with different doping concentration of Pr3+ rare-earth as an activator. The transparent single crystal has also been grown in argon atmosphere by the Czochralski method with 1 mol. % of Pr3+ doping element. The grown crystal possesses a monoclinic structure with a space group of P 2 1 / c. The crystal has been cut and optically polished to study the luminescence properties with X-ray, UV, α-particles, and γ-ray excitations. The crystal has showed relaxed 4f15d-4f2 emission at 309 nm along with characteristic 4f2-4f2 transition emissions. The UV–Vis–NIR absorbance spectrum has been obtained in the range of 250–2000 nm. Above 300 nm the crystal has showed about 50% transmittance. The Commission International De I'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity diagram is depicting the change in combined emission colors for different excitation positions. The scintillation properties of the crystal have been studied with γ-ray from 60Co, α-particles from 241Am and moderated thermal neutrons from a252Cf source. The pulse shape discrimination, obtained for γ-ray, α-particles, and moderated thermal neutrons has shown the potential of this scintillator for thermal neutron detection. • 1 mol% Pr3+ doped Li 6 Y(BO 3) 3 single crystal has been grown using Czochralski method. • 4f15d-4f2 transition luminescence has been observed in UV–Vis measurements. • UV–Vis–NIR absorbance has been studied for 3H 6 to 3P 2 , 3P 1 /1I 6 , 3P 0 , 1D 2 , 1G 4 , 3F 4 , 3F 3, and 3F 2 transitions. • CIE chromaticity 1931 diagram has been plotted for different UV excitations. • A good discrimination of thermal neutrons to γ-rays has been observed with pulse shape discrimination method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]