Effect of annealing on Bridgman grown organic scintillation material of trans-stilbene

Organic scintillation materials are very much useful in the area of nuclear experiments, medical diagnostics and therapy. In the present investigation, we have systematically analyzed the vertical Bridgman grown organic scintillation material of trans-stilbene which is annealed at different annealing temperatures. Remarkable changes have been observed on its structural and optical properties. High resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) analysis shows noticeable difference for the annealed specimen than the as-grown crystal. The observed results exposed that the crystalline quality was drastically improved by the elimination of defects or low angle boundaries by post growth annealing technique. Its optical behavior has been examined by photoluminescence, Raman and IR analyses. Vickers microhardness measurement has been carried out and found that hardness values increases for the annealed trans-stilbene single crystals. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.