| NSF Org: |
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 20, 2006 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | December 9, 2010 |
| Award Number: | 0610201 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Sylvia Spengler
sspengle@nsf.gov (703)292-7347 IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2006 |
| End Date: | December 31, 2011 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $233,750.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $538,750.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2007 = $211,000.00 FY 2008 = $32,000.00 FY 2009 = $26,000.00 FY 2010 = $26,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO ALBUQUERQUE NM US 87131-0001 (505)277-4186 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO ALBUQUERQUE NM US 87131-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Info Integration & Informatics |
| Primary Program Source: |
app-0107 01000809DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01000809RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01000910RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001011RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project Outcomes Report on NSF Grant IIS-0610201
Exploratory Studies of Optical Response to Gamma and Neutron Radiation of Doped and Undoped II-VI, III-V, and Novel Scintillating Core/Shell Nanocrystals
PI: Marek Osinski, University of New Mexico
Nuclear radiation detectors are becoming increasingly important for a wide range of applications, including the homeland security against catastrophic terrorist threats, nuclear forensic analysis, monitoring treaty compliance, counterproliferation, long term monitoring of nuclear waste storage sites, environmental safety, use of nuclear waste energy, high energy physics, biomedical imaging (PET, radiotherapy), industrial defectoscopy, and oil well logging. An ideal nuclear detector should combine a number of features presently distributed among many different types of detectors: high energy resolution, high sensitivity, high efficiency, room-temperature operation, scalability, robustness, etc. The tradeoffs between different detectors become even more apparent when other parameters are considered, such as high speed, low cost, good proportionality, high stopping power, portability, resistance to shock, and so on. Nanotechnology offers new prospects for meeting those competing requirements. In this project, we focused on exploratory investigations of a large number of different nanocrystals to determine their potential as gamma and neutron radiation detectors.
Cerium-doped lanthanum halides are a class of scintillators that combine high levels of light output, relatively short scintillation decay time, high energy-resolution, and good linearity of response. In contrast to other lanthanide halide scintillators such as LaBr3 or LuI3 that are highly hygroscopic or even deliquescent, LaF3 is stable in presence of water. This makes it attractive for low-cost nanoscintillators, provided other parameters, such as energy resolution or energy conversion efficiency are proven to be satisfactory. In addition, undoped LaF3 is a very good candidate for a shell material protecting hygroscopic cores. Ce-doped LaF3 (LaF3:Ce) colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) and Eu-doped LaF3 (LaF3:Eu) Colloidal NCs have been synthesized in both aqueous solutions and anhydrously. An anhydrous synthesis has been developed for LaBr3:Ce and LaBr3:Ce/LaF3 core/shell colloidal NCs.
Lead-based compound NCs are of interest as potential novel scintillation materials due to their high density and the high atomic weight of Pb. While the bulk materials may have poor efficiency of light emission at room temperature, the effects of quantum confinement are expected to greatly enhance the probability of radiative transitions, as well as reduce the radiative recombination lifetime. PbI2, PbIOH, and Pb3O2Cl2 NCs have been successfully synthesized, characterized and tested for gamma detection.
Gadolinium has the highest thermal neutron absorption cross-section of any naturally occurring element. Even without any isotopic enrichment, naturally occurring Gd has an average value of sn = 49,000 barns. We have explored a novel concept of Gd-containing nanocrystalline materials for neutron detection. Gd2O3 NCs, Gd2O3 NCs doped with Ce, Gd2O3 NCs doped with Eu, Gd2O3 NCs co-doped with Ce and Eu, GdF3 NCs, GdF3 NCs doped with Ce, and LaF3 NCs doped with Gd for neutron detection applications have been obtained by means of colloidal syn...
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