Quality Control and Structural Assessment of Anisotropic Scintillating Crystals

Abstract

Nowadays, radiation detectors based on scintillating crystals are used in many different fields of science like medicine, aerospace, high-energy physics, and security. The scintillating crystals are the core elements of these devices; by converting high-energy radiation into visible photons, they produce optical signals that can be detected and analyzed. Structural and surface conditions, defects, and residual stress states play a crucial role in their operating performance in terms of light production, transport, and extraction. Industrial production of such crystalline materials is a complex process that requires sensing, in-line and off-line, for material characterization and process control to properly tune the production parameters. Indeed, the scintillators’ quality must be accurately assessed during their manufacture in order to prevent malfunction and failures at each level of the chain, optimizing the production and utilization costs. This paper presents an overview of the techniques used, at various stages, across the crystal production process, to assess the quality and structural condition of anisotropic scintillating crystals. Different inspection techniques (XRD, SEM, EDX, and TEM) and the non-invasive photoelasticity-based methods for residual stress detection, such as laser conoscopy and sphenoscopy, are presented. The use of XRD, SEM, EDX, and TEM analytical methods offers detailed structural and morphological information. Conoscopy and sphenoscopy offer the advantages of fast and non-invasive measurement suitable for the inspection of the whole crystal quality. These techniques, based on different measurement methods and models, provide different information that can be cross-correlated to obtain a complete characterization of the scintillating crystals. Inspection methods will be analyzed and compared to the present state of the art.