A new promising scintillator Ba3InB9O18

We report on the synthesis, crystal structure and scintillation property of a new compound Ba3InB9O18. This compound crystallizes in space group P63/m with unit cell of dimensions a=7.1359(3) Å, c=16.6151(8) Å and V=732.697 Å3 with two Ba3InB9O18 molecular formula. Its crystal structure is made up of planar B3O6 groups parallel to each other along the 〈0001〉 direction, regular InO6 octahedra, irregular BaO6 hexagons and BaO9 polyhedra to form an analog structure of Ba3YB9O18. DTA and TGA curves for Ba3InB9O18 show that it is a chemically stable and congruent melting compound. Its X-ray excited luminescence spectra show an intense emission band in the range of 360–500 nm with a maximum at 400 nm. Light yield for Ba3InB9O18 is about 75% as large as that for BGO under the same measurement conditions. There may exist a correlation between the scintillation properties and the crystal structural features of Ba3InB9O18.