Exploratory Studies of Optical Response to Gamma and Neutron Radiation of Doped and Undoped II-VI, III-V, and Novel Scintillating Core/Shell Nanocrystals [UNM_FY06_025]

闪烁体通常由透明绝缘体和用作发光中心的杂质组成。他们往往很慢，或者效率有多低。液体、溶胶-凝胶和有机聚合物中的胶体纳米晶体将得到开发。纳米晶体的表面将被修饰，使其可溶。将对光学响应进行调查，并对不同系统的结果进行比较。这项工作将首次研究胶体纳米晶体对辐射的光学响应。预计这一努力将导致利用纳米晶体中电子和空穴的3D限制来识别高效、快速的闪烁体。它将提供一个关于伽马射线和中子响应的系统数据库，以及纳米晶体的表征。这项工作将有助于研究纳米晶体的基本辐射效应，并将其用于手持、高效的核辐射探测器。这项工作应该会对闪烁材料的发展产生重大影响，并将范围扩大到纳米晶体。这些组织通过一个专门的项目积极地让本科生参与到研究中来，该项目的重点是招募、指导、留住和毕业代表不足的群体的成员。

Scintillators are usually consist of a transparent insulator and an impurity that functions as a luminescence center. They are often slow or how low efficiency. Colloidal nano-crystals in liquids, sol-gel and organic polymers will be developed. The nano-crystal surface will be modified to make them soluble. The optical response will be investigated and results compared across systems. The work will provide the first studies of the optical response of colloidal nano-crystals to irradiation. It is anticipated that this effort will lead to identification of high-efficiency, fast scintillators utilizing 3D confinement of electrons and holes in nano-crystals. It will provide a systematic database of gamma ray and neutron response and characterization of nano-crystals. The work will contribute to the investigation of basic radiation effects on nano-crystals and their utilization in handheld, efficient detectors of nuclear radiation. The work should have a major impact on the development of scintillating materials and expand the range to nano-crystals. The groups actively engages undergraduate students in the research through a specialized program focused on recruitment, mentoring, retention and graduation of members of underrepresented groups.