Study of undoped CeF3 scintillators at room and liquid nitrogen temperature

Abstract

In this paper properties of various undoped CeF3 scintillators were investigated at room and liquid nitrogen (LN2) temperature. The study was focused on measurements of radioluminescence spectra, decay time, non-proportional response on X- and γ-rays and energy resolution at different temperature environment. Surprisingly, the pure CeF3 crystals show comparable non-proportionality curves, which are very similar to that presented by inorganic scintillators. The investigation of the phenomenon occurring in CeF3 scintillators would be another step to get a better knowledge of the scintillators nature, which still haven't been entirely understood.