Synthesis, Growth and Scintillation Properties of Large Size Bi$lt;inf$gt;4$lt;/inf$gt;Si$lt;inf$gt;3$lt;/inf$gt;O$lt;inf$gt;12$lt;/inf$gt; Crystals

Using stoichiometric Si(OC 2 H 5 ) 4 and Bi(NO 3 ) 3 5H 2 O as precursors and citric acid as solvent, polycrystalline Bi 4 Si 3 O 12 (BSO) powders were synthesized by Sol-Gel method and sintered at high temperature. Batch production of 250 g powders was realized. Using as-synthesized BSO powders and <001>-oriented BSO seeds, BSO crystals were grown in the vertical Bridgman furnace. The crystallization behavior was discussed and high quality BSO crystal up to 30 mm 30 mm 210 mm was obtained. The scintillation characteristics of BSO single crystals were investigated.