Scintillator surface modification by glancing angle deposition of thin ZrO2 films

In this research, we evaluated the properties of ZrO2 films produced with the glancing angle deposition technique and evaluated its effect on the detector properties. With using ZrO2, we created films with a refraction index in the range of 1.3 to 2.0, and produced a four layer graded-index (GRIN) antireflection coating. A BGO scintillator sample with an applied GRIN coating demonstrated up to similar to 53% light output enhancement in comparison with the reference ones. For LYSO scintillators, the observed magnitude of the effect was less, similar to 11%. Thus, this method is a technologically applicable way to improve the characteristics of existing and projected detector systems.