Stillwater Crystal Growth Division of Landauer

Production of Aluminum Oxide Crystals for OSL Dosimetry

Aluminum oxide crystals doped with carbon (Al2O3:C) are key components of Landauer OSL technology. The success achieved by Landauer, Inc. is based largely on the production of high quality (Al2O3:C) crystals and powder in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Stillwater Crystal Growth facility occupies two buildings with 8000 square feet of laboratory space, and produces all radiation sensitive detector material used by the company. State-of-the-art crystal growth and quality control equipment enables Landauer to produce about 1500 kg of crystals per year that are used for the production of more than 20 million OSL detectors. To produce large homogeneous batches of Luxel® and InLight™ OSL dosimeters, Al2O3:C crystals are ground into a fine powder. All grown and processed Al2O3:C materials undergo quality control and performance testing. Spacious QC and R&D laboratories in Stillwater are equipped with lasers and spectroscopic equipment.

Al2O3 single crystals and powders produced by Landauer

R&D

Stillwater Crystal Growth Division conducts an active R&D program for the development of new products and applications of aluminum oxide crystals.

Optical Data Storage Technology

The most promising development of Landauer is an aluminum oxide single crystal disk for volumetric optical data storage of terabyte capacity. The proposed technology should allow fast storage of information on one disk equivalent to the capacity of 200 standard DVD disks. The technology provides an inexpensive and highly reliable alternative to long-term data archival and backup. The prototypes of the disks have been successfully tested using demonstration stands designed by Landauer researchers. Patent applications related to this technology were filed and three patents were recently issued. Preliminary results obtained in tests of the new disks were presented at several International Symposiums on Optical Data Storage and Optical Memory, and were very positively evaluated by the experts in this very competitive field.

Aggregate color center in Al2O3 crystal	Volumetric optical disks made of Al2O3 single crystal
Testing the experimental optical disk	Formation of a data bit in the volume of the crystal

Fluorescent Nuclear Track Detectors (FNTD) for Dosimetry of Neutrons and Heavy Charged Particles

The latest development of Landauer is a Fluorescent Nuclear Track Detector (FNTD) for dosimetry of neutrons and heavy charged particles. This new concept of fluorescent nuclear track detector is based on single crystals of aluminum oxide doped with carbon and magnesium, and having aggregate oxygen vacancy defects (Al2O3:C,Mg). The reliable optical readout technique uses the principles of laser scanning fluorescent confocal microscopy. Non-destructive readout, temperature stability of up to 600°C, reusability, superior spatial resolution, a wider range of LET sensitivity, and spectroscopic capabilities are among the main features of this new technology.

Fluorescent image of tracks produced in Al2O3 by heavy ions

Learn more about Aluminum Oxide Manufacturing