Crystal growth, optical, luminescence and scintillation characterization of Li2Zn2(MoO4)3 crystal

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds Vol. 860; p. 158510
• Main Authors: Pandey, Indra Raj, Karki, Sujita, Daniel, D. Joseph, Kim, H.J., Kim, Y.D., Lee, Moo Hyun, Pavlyuk, A.A., Trifonov, V.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 15-04-2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: B1: Single crystal; B2: Low temperature-gradient; Beta decay; Calcium compounds; Cryogenic temperature; Crystal growth; Crystals; D1: Powder X-ray diffraction; D2: Luminescence properties; D3: Scintillation light yield; Emission; Excitation; Light emitting diodes; Low temperature; Luminescence; Mathematical analysis; Optical properties; Scintillation; Single crystals; Strontium 90; Temperature; Temperature dependence; Thermoluminescence; X ray powder diffraction; D3: Scintillation light yield; B1: Single crystal; D1: Powder X-ray diffraction; B2: Low temperature-gradient; D2: Luminescence properties
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.158510

•Li2Zn2(MoO4)3 single crystal was grown successfully with flux method using an LTG-CZ technique.•The ratio of Li2Zn2(MoO4)3 and Li2MoO4 was obtained as 90:10 for a quality single crystal.•Crystal structure, optical, luminescence, and scintillation properties of the crystal were reported.•A significant increase of luminescence and scintillation light at ~10 K compared to that at 300 K.•At 10 K, compared to CaMoO4 crystal, the luminescence and scintillation light of Li2Zn2(MoO4)3 is ~70% and ~8%, respectively.
A Li2Zn2(MoO4)3 (LZMO) single crystal was grown by the flux method under the condition of a low temperature-gradient. The obtained crystal has a single-phase confirmed by a powder X-ray diffraction study. Luminescence properties of the crystal have been studied from room to cryogenic (300–6 K) temperatures under excitation by a 280 nm light-emitting diode (LED). At 6 K, the grown crystal exhibits an intrinsic emission band with emission wavelength ranges from 400 to 900 nm, and the maximum peak at ~612 nm. From 6 to 280 K, the luminescence decay time of the crystal was studied using the 280 nm LED. The decay times for the entire temperature range were fitted with two exponential decay functions. The temperature-dependent (300–10 K) scintillation light yield was studied under the excitation of a 90Sr (beta) radioactive source. We compared scintillation and luminescence light yields of the LZMO with a reference CaMoO4 crystal. Thermoluminescence study of the crystal was carried out from 9 to 300 K and different kinematic parameters such as activation energy and frequency factor have been calculated. From this study, it shows that the LZMO crystal has potential as detector material in experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 100Mo at cryogenic temperatures.