Properties of the high-density scintillator cerium fluoride

A new radiation-hard scintillator, CeF₃, has been found. It has a density of 6.16 g/cm³ and a radiation length of 1.7 cm. Two scintillation decay constants have been detected with time constants of ~2 ns and 31 ns, peaking at 310 nm and 340 nm, respectively. The amount of scintillation light from the present samples is about 50% that of BGO (bismuth germanate). It is concluded that CeF ₃ fills a niche in PET (position emission tomography) in that it has the potential of providing a less expensive high-rate camera. It has a better stopping power for 511-keV photons with BaF₂, while its scintillation is detectable with a glass photomultiplier