Scintillator

A material that emits flashes of light when excited by ionizing radiation. The light converts otherwise difficult-to-detect radiation interactions into measurable signals.

Scintillation: The emission of brief flashes of light after a material absorbs energy, often from ionizing radiation. The light-producing process that gives scintillators their name and makes their signals detectable.
Ionizing radiation: Radiation energetic enough to remove electrons from atoms or molecules, creating ions. Scintillators respond to the energy deposited by this broad class of radiation.
Gamma-ray spectroscopy: The measurement of gamma-ray energies to identify radioactive sources and study nuclear transitions. Scintillator pulse amplitudes can estimate gamma-ray energies in spectroscopy systems.
Semiconductor detector: A radiation detector that converts deposited energy directly into charge carriers in a semiconductor. It avoids the scintillator’s intermediate light-production and light-collection steps.
Photomultiplier tube: A vacuum tube that converts faint light into an amplified electrical signal through photoelectric emission and electron multiplication. It detects and amplifies the weak flashes produced by many scintillators.
Photoluminescence: Light emission from a material after it absorbs photons and later releases energy radiatively. Its excited-state physics helps explain how scintillator materials convert deposited energy into light.
Positron emission tomography: A medical imaging technique that reconstructs tracer distribution from pairs of photons produced by positron annihilation. Scintillator crystals detect the annihilation photons in most PET scanners.
Gas ionization detector: A radiation detector that measures charge or light produced when radiation ionizes a gas. It detects radiation through gas ionization rather than light emitted by a solid scintillator.
Silicon photomultiplier: A semiconductor light sensor made from an array of avalanche photodiodes operated in Geiger mode. It provides a compact solid-state alternative for reading scintillator light.
Energy transfer: The movement of excitation energy between atoms, molecules, or electronic states without necessarily transferring matter. Radiation-created excitations often migrate before reaching light-emitting centers.

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