Materials Chemistry and Physics, Vol.212, 161-166, 2018
Determination of thermal expansion of KCal(3) using in-situ high temperature powder X-ray diffraction
KCal(3):Eu single crystals exhibit favorable scintillation properties and have potential for use in domestic security applications requiring radioisotope identification. The anisotropic thermal expansion of the orthorhombic unit cell of this perovskite-type scintillator has been investigated using in-situ high temperature X-ray diffraction on powdered samples. Samples from single crystals of both pure and Eu-doped KCal(3) grown by the Bridgman method were used for comparison. Expansion with temperature along the b-axis is greatest with an average linear coefficient of thermal expansion of approximate to (41-46) x 10(-6) K-1 resulting from the weaker bonding between alternating layers of K and Ca parallel to the b-axis. Thermal expansion in each of the KCal(3) samples has the highest degree of anisotropy with respect to the b and c axis with ratio (alpha)over-bar(b)/(alpha)over-bar(c) of 1.4-1.5. Additionally, we identify the predominant cleavage plane in KCal(3) as (0 -3 -1) based upon Laue reflection imaging. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.