Fundamental Limitations in the Performance of Ce^3+–, Pr^3+–, and Eu^2+–Activated Scintillators

The fundamental limits on the scintillation decay, scintillation yield, and X-ray or γ-ray energy resolution obtainable with Ce 3+ , Pr 3+ , and Eu 2+ activated inorganic scintillators are determined. Those limits are compared with what has been achieved today with scintillators like YAlO 3 :Ce, Lu 2 SiO 5 :Ce, LaCl 3 :Ce, LaBr 3 :Ce, Lul 3 :Ce, and emerging scintillators like Lu 3 Al 5 O 12 :Pr 3+ and SrI 2 :Eu 2+ . Higher scintillation yield not necessarily leads to better energy resolution; nonproportional scintillation yield with deposited amount of ionization energy is an important aspect too that will be addressed.