Effect of Ca doping on the structure and scintillation properties of ZnWO4

Journal article

The future application of ZnWO 4 scintillator in a cryogenic search for rare events is the motivation for optimization of this material. We present results on the effect of Ca doping on the structure and scintillation properties of ZnWO 4. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that there is no mixing in the CaWO 4-ZnWO 4 pseudobinary system due to a significant mismatch of the crystal structures of CaWO 4 and ZnWO 4. The lattice parameters of Ca-doped ZnWO 4 samples obtained from X-ray powder diffraction data confirmed this finding. It is also shown that ZnWO 4 retains the monoclinic wolframite structure when cooling, at 12 K exhibiting the following lattice parameters: a = 4.6826(2) Å, b = 5.7088(2) Å, c = 4.9230(2) Å and β = 90.541(2)°. The scintillation light yield of the Zn 1-x,Ca xWO 4 was measured using the multi-photon counting technique and it is found that small concentrations of Ca (x = 0.001 - 0.02) cause no deterioration of this parameter. Ca doping of ZnWO 4 is expected to facilitate production of a single-crystalline scintillator. © 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA.

Authors: Kraus, H; Mikhailik, V; Vasylechko, L; Day, D; Hutton, K

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI A-APPLICATIONS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE
• Volume: 204
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 730-736
• Publication date: 2007-03-01
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.200622331
• EISSN: 1862-6319
• ISSN: 0031-8965
• Language: English