Problems of Manufacturing Nanocrystalline Yttrium Silicate Materials

Technology of producing single crystal scintillators is rather a hard and complex technological task connected with a very low output issue (15-50%) of the material and the restricted area of its application. Recent efforts of scientists are directed toward searching for alternative ways for producing these materials. It was established that high-performance ceramic scintillation materials for producing the scintillators could be prepared by using powder metallurgy techniques. However despite of certain achievements in this area, transparency of ceramic scintillators is still under the question. In our opinion a key to the solution of the problem lies in preparing scintillators in nanocrystalline structural state. A technology developed on the basis of the modified Sol-Gel method shows possibilities of manufacturing number of standard (as well as new hard to obtain as single crystals) scintillation materials. Present work is dedicated to the problems of manufacturing yttrium orthosilicate (Y₂SiO₅)-as of one of the perspective scintillation materials.