BGO – Bismuth Germanate
In addition to being an electo-optic crystal used in non-linear optical applications, Bismuth Germanate is widely used for scintillation.
BGO has high atomic number and density values, with detectors using this material being lighter and smaller than others based on alkali halide scintillating material.
Bismuth Germanate offers ruggedness with non-hygroscopic material and no cleavage. With its high Z value BGO crystals are suitable for natural radioactivity detection high energy-energy physics and in Compton-scatter suppression spectrometers.
BGO’s qualities make it ideal for scintillation applications from geophysics and medicine, to high-energy and space applications.
| Density [g/cm³] | 7.13 |
| Melting point [K] | 1323 |
| Thermal expansion coefficient [K-¹] | 7 x 10-⁶ |
| Cleavage plane | none |
| Hardness (Mho) | 5 |
| Hygroscopic | No |
| Wavelength of emission maximum [nm] | 480 |
| Lower wavelength cutoff [nm] | 320 |
| Refractive index at emission maximum | 2.15 |
| Primary decay time [µs] | 300 |
| Light yield [photons/MeV γ] | 8 - 10 |
| Photoelectron yield [% of NaI(Tl)] (y rays) | 45 |
| Temperature response | -1.2%/C |
| Neutron capture cross-section | 1.47b |
| Afterglow (after 20ms) | 150ppm |