Research Initiation Award: Development of New Halide-based Rare-Earth Scintillators

研究启动奖为历史悠久的黑人学院和大学的初级和职业生涯中期教师提供支持，这些教师正在建立新的研究计划或重新定向和重建现有的研究计划。预计该奖项有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和有效性，改善她所在机构的研究和教学，并让本科生参与研究经验。授予汉普顿大学的奖项通过开发新的基于卤化物的稀土探测器，在高能物理、国土安全和核医学领域具有潜在的影响。该项目的结果将增加关于所建议材料的光学、结构、电子和闪烁特性的新知识，影响高效辐射传感器的开发。每年都有两名本科生直接参与这项研究。计划在当地的K-12学校和社区大学开展推广活动。在过去的十年里，闪烁体在国土安全、监测核材料、X射线成像屏、高能粒子物理实验、工业检查和天然气勘探等广泛应用中吸引了巨大的兴趣。闪烁体是一种能够将X射线或伽马射线等高能辐射转化为可见光的材料。本研究的目的是开发新型卤化物基稀土闪烁材料。二价铕(Eu2+)掺杂的卤化铅二元化合物如PbCl2、PbBr2、PbI2将被用作闪烁晶体。这项工作还将包括比较高性能卤化物闪烁体，包括Eu2+：SrI2和Eu2+：BaI2，以更好地了解其光学性质和闪烁机理。掺Eu~(2+)卤化铅的光谱表征、结构和电子性质将被认为是潜在的闪烁材料。

Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing research programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at her home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences. The award to Hampton University has potential impact in the areas of high energy physics, homeland security, and nuclear medicine through the development of new halide-based rare-earth detectors. The results of this project will add new knowledge on the optical, structural, electronic, and scintillation properties of the proposed materials, impacting the development of efficient radiation sensors. Every year, two undergraduate students will be directly involved in the research. Outreach activities are planned to local K-12 schools and community colleges.Scintillators have attracted enormous interest over the last decade for a wide range of applications such as homeland security, monitoring nuclear materials, X-ray imaging screens, high-energy particle physics experiments, industrial inspections, and gas exploration. Scintillators are materials that are capable of converting high energy radiation such as X-rays or gamma rays to visible light. The objective of this research is to develop new halide-based rare-earth scintillator materials. Divalent europium (Eu2+) doped lead halide based binary compounds such as PbCl2, PbBr2, PbI2 will be used as scintillation crystals. The work will also involve the comparison of high performing halide scintillators including Eu2+:SrI2 and Eu2+:BaI2 for better understanding the optical properties and the scintillation mechanisms. Spectroscopic characterization and the structural and electronic properties of Eu2+ doped lead halides will be evaluated as potential scintillator materials.