Fast light emission channels in scintillators
In plain words
A crystal that converts a gamma ray into light emits most of it too slowly for very precise timing. Finding or engineering a fast first burst of light is the main limit.
Precise statement
Identify and engineer prompt emission mechanisms with sub-100 ps rise and a useful photon yield at 511 keV: Cherenkov emission in high-refractive-index media, cross-luminescence in barium fluoride, quantum-confined emission in nanocrystals and metamaterial scintillators, and hot intraband luminescence. Required figures of merit: prompt photons per MeV, emission rise time, self-absorption and extraction efficiency. An answer names a material and reports these quantities.
What would settle it
Measurement of prompt photon yield and rise time in a candidate material, with the resulting coincidence time resolution in a detector of clinical stopping power.
Related problems
- Special case of Is 10 ps coincidence time resolution reachable