Physics at Nicolaus Copernicus University

Scintillator and Phosphor Materials Group
Andrzej J. Wojtowicz – head of the group, Winicjusz Drozdowski,
Dariusz Wiœniewski, Sebastian Janus
The main focus of the Group is on light production mechanisms in potential scintillator and phosphor
materials, including recombination processes at structured impurities in wide bandgap optical materials.
The electronic structure of systems comprising the activating ion and the solid state host material,
and processes such as energy conversion and transfer mechanisms, luminescence and energy losses
and radiation induced defects are the most important characteristics of material systems that the Group
targets to study and describe. The ultimate goal the Group aims to achieve is to find a luminescent material
that could be employed in practical devices extending the available wavelength range to UV and VUV.
A carefully selected combination of a wide bandgap material and an appropriate dopant must be found that
would support a fast and efficient radiative recombination using a full energy of the recombining electron-hole
pair with no loss to lattice relaxation.
Some recent topics of interest include:
1. Radiative recombination and scintillation mechanism
in new scintillator materials (LuAP, LuYAP, LSO, LYSO), garnets (YAG)
and alkaline earth fluorides (BaF 2, CaF 2)
activated with Ce and Pr,
2. Radiation damage centers in perovskites, garnets and fluorides,
3. UV and VUV spectroscopy
of perovskites, garnets and alkaline earth fluorides activated with RE ions,
4. Energy transfer and energy loss mechanisms
in scintillator and phosphor materials activated with RE ions.
The Group collaborates with a number of European laboratories (Brussels, Hamburg, Delft, Geneva, Prague)
and commercial companies (Photonic Materials Ltd, CTI Molecular Imaging Inc). The Group is involved
in activities of the Crystal Clear Collaboration sponsored by CERN and European Community. Since 1997
it has been actively participating in research programs at Hasylab (VUV spectroscopy) in Hamburg, Germany.
The members of the Group maintain also close links with other Polish laboratories in Warsaw (Institute
of Electronic Materials Technology ITME, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology),
Wroc³aw (Polish Academy of Sciences, University of Wroc³aw), and Szczecin (University of Szczecin) and are
supported by grants from the Polish Committee for Scientific Research (KBN), commercial companies (PML,
CTI MI), and European Community.
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