Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd.

Nachimuthu Senguttuvan

Hiroyuki Ishibashi

Keiji Sumiya

Kazuhisa Kurashige

Naoaki Shimura

Kazuhiro Yoshida

Provided are a crucible which prevents polycrystal formation to easily allow growth of optical part material single crystals, and a single crystal growth method employing the crucible. The crucible has a smooth surface of about Rmax 3.2 s as the surface roughness of the wall surfaceH, concave curved planeJ, cone surfaceF and convex curved planeL of the starting material carrying sectionD and the wall surfaceK of the seed carrying sectionE, which constitute the inner surface of the crucible of a crucible bodyA.

Crucible and single crystal growth method using crucible

Provided are a crucible which prevents polycrystal formation to easily allow growth of optical part material single crystals, and a single crystal growth method employing the crucible. The crucible has a smooth surface of about Rmax 3.2s as the surface roughness of the wall surfaceH, concave curved planeJ, cone surfaceF and convex curved planeL of the starting material carrying sectionD and the wall surfaceK of the seed carrying sectionE, which constitute the inner surface of the crucible of a crucible bodyA.

Crucible and method of growing single crystal by using crucible

The present invention provides an inorganic scintillator including a matrix material comprising a metal oxide, and a luminescence center made of Ce contained in the matrix material, the inorganic scintillator being adapted to scintillate in response to a radiation; wherein the matrix material further comprises a dopant having a tetravalent ionization energy I [kJ&#xb7;mol] satisfying the condition represented by the following expression (1):3000&#x2266;I&#x2266;3500. &#x2003;&#x2003;(1)

Inorganic scintillator

A single crystal of a silicate of a rare earth element herein provided is characterized in that it has a Ce concentration of not less than 0.6 mole % and not more than 5 mole % and that it has a light transmittance, as determined at a wavelength of 450 nm, of not less than 75%. The single crystal permits the solution of the problems associated with the conventional techniques or the problems concerning the coloration of the resulting single crystal and the reduction of the light transmittance thereof, which are disadvantages observed when the Ce concentration of the single crystal is increased to reduce the fluorescence-attenuation time. The single crystal thus permits the high-speed diagnosis of PET devices.

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Tsukuba, Japan

Nachimuthu Senguttuvan