Azimuth Photonics offers extensive selection of scintillators and detectors by industry leading manufacturers such as Saint-Gobain Crystals and Kuraray. Saint-Gobain provides wide range of crystalline inorganic scintillators, plastic organic scintillators, Geiger-Mueller tubes and proportional counters. Kuraray produces synthetic fiber under under the KURALON brand.
A scintillator is a material that exhibits the property of luminescence, when excited by ionizing radiation. A scintillation detector or scintillation counter is obtained when a scintillator is coupled to an electronic light sensor such as a photomultiplier tube (PMT), photodiode, or silicon photomultiplier. Azimuth Photonics offers extensive selection of scintillators and detectors by industry leading manufacturers such as Saint-Gobain Crystals and Kuraray. Saint-Gobain provides wide range of crystalline inorganic scintillators, plastic organic scintillators, Geiger-Mueller tubes and proportional counters. Kuraray produces synthetic fiber under under the KURALON brand.
Inorganic Scintillators
Inorganic scintillators are usually crystals grown in high temperature furnaces, for example, alkali metal halides, often with a small amount of activator impurity. The most widely used is NaI(Tl) (sodium iodide doped with thallium). Other inorganic alkali halide crystals are: CsI(Tl), CsI(Na), CsI(pure), LiI(Eu). Some non-alkali crystals include: BaF2, CaF2(Eu),CWO,YAG(Ce), LSO.
Organic Scintillators
Organic scintillators are compounds which contain benzene ring structures interlinked in various ways. Their luminescence typically decays within a few nanoseconds.Organic scintillators can be dissolved in an organic solvent to form either a liquid or plastic scintillator.
Plastic Scintillators
A plastic scintillator consists of a solid solution of organic scintillating molecules in a polymerized solvent. Plastic scintillators are characterized by a relatively large light output and a short decay time of around 2 ns. This makes the material suited for fast timing measurements. All plastic scintillators are sensitive to X-rays, gamma rays, fast neutrons and charged particles. The exact emission wavelength and decay time depend on the type of organic activator and on the host material. A large number of different plastic scintillators are available, each for a specific application.
Liquid Scintillators
Liquid scintillators have many applications in neutron and gamma detection. They also provide low-cost alternatives to other scintillators in applications where large volumes are required. Different base materials produce Pulse Shape Discrimination properties, high flash point, performance at low or high temperatures, or other properties. Some scintillators are loaded with organo-metallic compounds to increase their neutron or photon cross-sections.
Scintillating Fibers
Our suppliers produce a variety of plastic scintillating, wavelength-shifting and light-transmitting fibers. Fibers are available in bulk quantities wound on spools (smaller cross-sections) and as canes (pre-cut straight lengths), or assembled into stacked arrays, bundles, ribbons and complete detectors. The flexibility of fibers allows them to conform to surface shapes, yielding geometries superior to those of other types of detectors.
Scintillation detectors
Saint-Gobain Crystals offers four basic detector designs: a packaged scintillator, a scintillator integrally mounted to a light-sensing device (such as a photomultiplier tube (PMT)), a scintillator with a demountable PMT and a scintillator array.
Gas-Filled Radiation Detectors
Our suppliers offer a full-line of standard Geiger-Mueller detectors and probes. Geiger-Mueller tubes provide effective means for both detecting and measuring the following types of radiation: Alpha particles, Beta particles, X-rays and Gamma rays.
