Prospects for new inorganic scintillators

It is shown that it is possible to use synchrotron X-radiation to measure fast fluorescent emission in compounds not readily available in single-crystal form. Of 85 compounds tested, about half were found to have fluorescence below the limit of the technique used, which was about 0.05% of Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ (BGO). Others had emissions in the 0.1 to 1% range, and a few had emissions that were both fast and above 1% of BGO. Scintillation from CeF₃ and PbCO ₃ was discovered. Since only a small fraction of known compounds have ever been tested for scintillation properties, it is concluded that many of these may be useful scintillators