Full Ce substitution on La in Tl2LaCl5: impact and performance

Abstract

Scintillators based on Tl salts that provide high densities and high effective atomic numbers are currently being investigated for their possible use in radioisotope identification applications. Ce-doped Tl₂LaCl₅, in particular, has been the leading compound of those studied, showing good light output and energy resolution. The analogous Tl₂CeCl₅ has received much less attention, and the information known about it is rather incomplete. This paper focuses on the scintillation and optical properties of Tl₂CeCl₅ single crystals and compares them to those of Tl₂LaCl₅:Ce to better evaluate the effect of full substitution of La with Ce.