Ceramic scintillator material and manufacturing method thereof, and radiation detector therewith and radiation inspection apparatus therewith

Abstract

A ceramic scintillator material consists of a sintered body of a rare earth oxysulfide phosphor containing Pr as an activator. The sintered body has a texture where coarse grains of irregular polyhedron and slender fine grains are intermixed. The coarse grains have a shape of for instance a dimension (average value) in the range of 50 to 100 μm, the fine grains having a shape of which average short axis is in the range of 2 to 5 μm and average long axis in the range of 5 to 100 μm. An area ratio of the coarse grains to the fine grains is in the range of 10:90 to 60:40. Such a ceramic scintillator material has, in addition to excellent light output (high sensitivity), mechanical strength capable of coping with downsizing of a detector. Furthermore, non-uniformity in sensitivity that causes artifacts can be decreased.

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