Scintillation and Luminescence Properties of Undoped and Cerium-doped LiGdCl4 and NaGdCl4

We report the scintillation properties of the undoped and cerium-doped variations of LiGdCl4 and NaGdCl4. Powder samples of these materials exhibit significant scintillation under X-rays. The samples were synthesized by solid-state methods from a 1:1 molar ratio of lithium or sodium chloride and gadolinium chloride. Cerium trichloride was used as the dopant. The physical, optical, and scintillation properties of these materials were analyzed by powder X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, X-ray excited luminescence, and pulsed X-ray luminosity measurements. Increases in light yields are observed as the concentration of cerium increases. The highest light yields occurred at 20 percent cerium doping for both compounds. At larger concentrations neither compound formed, indicating a breakdown of the lattice with the addition of large amounts of cerium cations. At 20 percent cerium, LiGdCl4 and NaGdCl4 display scintillation light 3.6 times and 2.2 times the light yield of the reference material, YAlO3:Ce3+, respectively. Both emit in the ranges of 340 ? 350 nm and 365 - 370 nm and display multiexponential decays with cerium-like decay components at 33 ns (LiGdCl4:Ce) and 26 ns (NaGdCl4:Ce)