Scintillation Characteristics of Thin NaI(Tl) and CsI (Tl) Layers Fabricated by Vacuum Deposition

The scintillation characteristics of thin vacuum-deposited layers of NaI (Tl) and CsI (Tl) were investigated. Scintillation layers with thicknesses ranging from 0.2 to 20 mg/cm2 were evaluated as detectors with 6- and 22-keV x rays. In this energy region they were found to be comparable in performance to the thicker, commercially available NaI (Tl) and CsI (Tl) scintillation crystals. Fabrication methods, scintillator evaluation techniques, and applications in selective low-energy x-ray detection will be reported.