New generation of plastic scintillators have been developed at RMD for fast neutron detection technology. These plastics have peak emission wavelength ~ 440 nm, fast scintillation decay <; 10 ns, light output ~ 13,000 photons/MeV, and excellent Pulse Shape Discrimination (PSD) between gamma rays and neutrons. We have achieved a Figure-of-Merit (FOM) of 2.3 at 1.0 MeVee electron energy threshold for a 2 inch diameter right cylinder sample. At RMD, comparative measurements were made between the plastic scintillator and Eljen liquid scintillator EJ309 both 1 inch diameter × 1 inch length. RMD plastic showed competitive performance. Additionally, in an experiment performed at the University of Kentucky 7 MV Van De Graaff accelerator, RMD plastic scintillator was irradiated with mono-energetic fast neutron beam energies up to 20.8 MeV. The results from this experiment confirm fast neutron spectroscopy capabilities. These results and effects of different electronic systems on the PSD measurements are discussed in this paper.

Scintillator crystal detectors form the basis for many radiation detection devices. Therefore, a search for high light yield single crystal scintillators with improved energy resolution, large volume, and the potential for low cost, is an ongoing process that has increased in recent years due to a large demand in the area of nuclear isotope identification. Alkaline earth halides, elpasolites and rare earth halides are very interesting because many compositions from these crystal families provide efficient Ce3+/ Eu2+ luminescence, good proportionality and good energy resolution. They also have small band-gap leading to higher light yields. Ce3+and Eu2+ are efficient, and the emission wavelengths in the 350-500 nm region matches well with PMTs and a new generation of Siphotodiodes. In this presentation, we will the present progress made in the crystal growth of these compositions, and scintillator properties of large diameter SrI2:Eu2+ single transparent crystals. The crystals were grown successfully using the vertical Bridgeman technique. Crystals with different diameters of 1”, 1.3”, and 1.5” will be discussed. SrI2:Eu was discovered a half century ago, and was recently found to be an outstanding material for gamma ray-spectroscopy with high light yield, very good non-proportionality, and excellent energy resolution. We will also discuss growth and properties of larger Cs2LiYCl6 (CLYC) crystals. Recently, it has been shown that crystals from the elpasolite family, including CLYC, can be successfully employed for a dual gamma ray and neutron detection, which is possible with the help of pulse shape discrimination (PSD). PSD allows for recognition of an incident particle’s nature based on the shape of the corresponding scintillation pulse. CLYC has the potential to minimize the cost and complexity of dual sensing gamma ray and neutron spectrometers. We also address progress in growth of CLYC crystals with large diameters (1” and 2”) that are transparent and crack free.

TlBr is an ionic material with good potential for use in high energy radiation detectors because of its relatively large band gap and heavy elements. In these sensors, incident radiation excites electron hole pairs that are collected as the response, and the mobility-lifetime product for electrons and holes, as well as low dark current are common figures of merit. TlBr reportedly displays ionic conductivity that leads to undesirable leakage, or dark current thereby reducing sensor response. This work focuses on the development of a defect and transport model appropriate to TlBr. The derived enthalpies of migration and Schottky defect formation are compared with literature values.