Scintillator Light Emission Enhancement via Nanostructure and Plasmonic Design
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Scintillator Light Emission Enhancement via Nanostructure and Plasmonic Design M. Brooke Beckert1, Jonathan Andreasen1, Keri Ledford1, Greg Mohler1, Clayton Kerce1, Jason H. Nadler1 1
Advanced Concepts Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute 925 Dalney Street Atlanta, GA 30332, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT Recent work in the development of glass-ceramic scintillators at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has focused on modifying formulation of the oxide host glass and scintillating crystal phase, secondary heat treatment (ceramization) schedule, and processing improvement to ensure optical quality. These efforts have yielded considerable performance improvements to glass-ceramic scintillators, and have made them among the most promising composite scintillators under investigation. However, these materials still fall short of current commercially-available single crystal scintillators, and so new avenues must be pursued for continued improvements. The present investigation uses predictive simulations to inform the materials selection and process design for high refractive index layers to improve light extraction from the scintillator, and increased light output via bulk or surface plasmon interactions. INTRODUCTION Background Over the past several years, investigators at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have made significant progress in the development of glass-ceramic scintillators for radiation spectroscopy [1], [2] and medical imaging applications [3], [4]. Example coupons are shown in Figure 1. Glass-ceramics are composite materials in which a non-continuous crystalline phase is precipitated in-situ within an amorphous host glass. For glass-ceramic scintillators specifically, the crystalline phase is comprised of scintillating rare-earth halides or oxides, and the growth step is carefully controlled to maintain a crystallite size
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