scintillatorn

Scintillatorn is not a standard term in radiation detection; this article describes scintillators, a well-established class of materials that emit light when irradiated by ionizing radiation. The emitted light is detected by photodetectors to infer the presence and energy of the radiation.

Types of scintillators include inorganic crystals such as sodium iodide doped with thallium (NaI(Tl)), cesium iodide doped with thallium (CsI(Tl)), bismuth germanate (BGO), and lutetium–yttrium orthosilicate doped with cerium (LYSO/LYSO:Ce) or gadolinium orthosilicate doped with cerium (GSO:Ce). Halide scintillators such as LaBr3:Ce and LaCl3:Ce offer high light yield and fast timing. Organic scintillators comprise plastic scintillators based on polystyrene or polyvinyltoluene, as well as liquid scintillators. Each type differs in light yield, emission spectrum, decay time, and density, influencing suitability for specific applications.

Mechanism and performance: when radiation interacts with a scintillator, energy is converted into electronic excitations that decay by emitting photons in the visible or near-UV range. The scintillation decay times span from nanoseconds to microseconds, depending on material and dopants. A higher light yield and faster decay generally improve energy and time resolution but may affect other properties such as density.

Applications: scintillators are used in medical imaging (for example, PET scanning with LYSO or LSO crystals and gamma cameras with NaI(Tl)), radiation dosimetry, high-energy physics calorimetry, and security or environmental monitoring.

Key properties: light yield (photons per MeV), emission spectrum, decay time, density, effective atomic number, temperature stability, and radiation hardness. Readout typically employs photomultiplier tubes or solid-state photodetectors like silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs).