TlBr crystal growth, purification and characterisation

TlBr single crystals are promising materials as room temperature X- and gamma ray detectors. However, the TlBr detector performance is generally limited by the quality of the initial crystal material. In this work, the chemical aspects of synthesis, purification, and crystal growth are emphasised. The aim of this paper was to develop characterisation methods for TlBr and study the effect of different impurities on the properties of TlBr. Samples of different types were selected for the investigations, viz. melt grown crystals and material precipitated from water solution. One important topic in the research was to study the purification of TlBr crystals by annealing in pure water. In this paper, the materials were characterised by X-ray diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, I-V measurements and trace element analysis. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.