Monte Carlo simulation of the passage of γ-rays and α-particles in CsI

Abstract Theoretical and computational methods for simulating the creation of ionization tracks by fast ions in solids were applied to the passage of α-particles in CsI, an inorganic scintillator commonly used for radiation detection. The methods were implemented in a Monte Carlo program to simulate the interaction of α-particles, with incident energies of up to 1 MeV, with CsI. The simulations followed the fate of individual electron-hole pairs and included the formation of Frenkel pairs and thus allowed for a detailed description of the microscopic structure of ionization and defect tracks created by incident radiation. Simulations were also performed with γ-rays of the same energy to compare and contrast the ionization tracks obtained with both types of particles. Intrinsic properties such as the mean energy per electron-hole pair, Fano factor, maximum theoretical light yield, and spatial distributions of electron-hole pairs were computed for both α-particles and γ-rays. α-Particles created cylindrical tracks that were initially aligned with the incident direction and with initial radii of a few tens of nanometers, whereas γ-rays showed significant scattering, resulting in probability distributions with lower intensities and much greater radial extents.