Samarium doped calcium fluoride: A red scintillator and X-ray phosphor

We report the photoluminescence, X-ray luminescence and scintillation properties of CaF2:Sm2+. Large single crystals of CaF2:Sm2+ were grown by simply slow cooling of the calcium fluorite melt doped with samarium metal. The photoluminescence at room temperature shows a broad red 5d→4f emission band peaked at 725 nm which is well matched to the response of silicon photodetectors, and only a very weak Sm3+ emission is observed. On cooling, the zero phonon lines of the Sm2+ emission can be observed. The lifetime of the broad emission is short at room temperature (46 ns), but temperature dependent, and slows on cooling, reaching a constant value of 1.25 µs below 180 K. The X-ray luminescence comprises both red Sm2+ and Sm3+ emissions and a blue self-trapped exciton band for low Sm concentrations, but just the broad red emission Sm2+ for highly doped (~1%) samples. The scintillation decay at room temperature shows two components, of 58 ns and 870 ns, in an integrated intensity ratio of 0.7:1 for a 0.1% Sm sample. The light output is around 15,000 photons/MeV when cooled by dry ice, with a scintillation decay time of 1.4 µs at that temperature. The performance of the material as an X-ray phosphor and scintillator is discussed.