Nerine J. Cherepy

Portrait of Nerine J. Cherepy
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  • Title
    Deputy Group Leader, Advanced Materials Synthesis
  • Email
    cherepy1@llnl.gov
  • Phone
    (925) 424-3492
  • Organization
    Not Available

Research Interests

Nerine Cherepy earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. After postdoctoral work at the University of California, Santa Cruz, she joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Since 2005, she has worked on the development new light-emitting materials, including single crystals, transparent ceramics and plastics, for various uses in ionizing radiation detection, new imaging screens, lighting phosphors and laser gain media.  These efforts involve device integration of new light-emitting materials for gamma spectroscopy, X-ray and neutron imaging, as well as lighting and laser applications. She has 17 awarded patents and more than 150 published papers. Materials development includes:

  • Bismuth-loaded plastic scintillator for gamma spectroscopy
  • High light yield plastic scintillators for MeV neutron imaging
  • GYGAG(Ce) – Gadolinium garnet transparent ceramics with R(662 keV)<4%; <100 ns principal decay
  • GLO(Eu) – Lutetium-based transparent ceramic for radiographic imaging and computed tomography
  • New phosphor materials for fluorescent and LED lighting – Nitrides, Oxynitrides, Fluorides and Oxides
  • Transparent ceramics fabricated via additive manufacturing for laser gain media
  • Cs2HfCl6 – Self-activated cubic Cesium Hafnium Chloride with high light yield and low hygroscopicity
  • SrI2(Eu) – Europium-doped Strontium Iodide scintillator crystal, offering R(662 keV) <3%

Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley 1996

B.S. Chemistry, Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University, Tempe 1990

  1. R.A. Osborne, N.J. Cherepy, Z.M. Seeley, S.A. Payne, A.D. Drobshoff, A.M.  Srivastava, W.W. Beers, W.W. Cohen, D.L. Schlagel, “New red phosphor ceramic K2SiF6:Mn4+,” Optical Materials 107 (2020) 110140.
  2. Z. Seeley, T. Yee, N. Cherepy, A. Drobshoff, O. Herrera, R. Ryerson, S.A. Payne, “3d printed transparent ceramic YAG laser rods: Matching the core-clad refractive index,” Optical Materials 107 (2020) 110121.
  3. S. O'Neal, N. Cherepy, S. Hok, S. Payne, “Performance of High Stopping Power Bismuth-loaded Plastic Scintillators for Radiation Portal Monitors,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., (2020).
  4. R.D. Sanner, N.J. Cherepy, H.P. Martinez, H.Q. Pham, V.G. Young Jr, “Phosphorescent heteroleptic iridium (III) cyclometallates: Improved syntheses of acetylacetonate complexes and quantum chemical studies of their excited state properties,” Polyhedron, 176, 114256 (2020).
  5. C. Delzer, M. Zhuravleva, L. Stand, C. Melcher, N. Cherepy, S. Payne, R. Sanner, J.P. Hayward, “Observations regarding inclusions in the growth of Cs2HfCl6 single crystal scintillators,” J. Crystal Growth, 531, 125336 (2020).
  6. R.D. Sanner, N.J. Cherepy, H.Q. Pham, V.G. Young Jr, “Highly efficient phosphorescence from cyclometallated iridium(III) compounds: Improved syntheses of picolinate complexes and quantum chemical studies of their electronic structures,” Inorganica Chimica Acta, 496, 119040 (2019).
  7. E. Rowe, W.B. Goodwin, P. Bhattacharya, G. Cooper, N. Schley, M. Groza, N.J. Cherepy, S.A. Payne, A. Burger, “Preparation, structure and scintillation of cesium hafnium chloride bromide crystals,” J. Crystal Growth, 509, 124-128 (2019).
  8. N.J. Cherepy, S. Hok, S.P. O'Neal, H.P. Martinez, P.R. Beck, R.D. Sanner, O.B. Drury, E.L. Swanberg, S.A. Payne, C.R. Hurlbut, “Bismuth-loaded plastic scintillator portal monitors,” SPIE Hard X-Ray, Gamma-Ray, and Neutron Detector Physics XX 10762, 107620B (2018).
  9. R. A. Osborne, N. J. Cherepy, D. Åberg, F. Zhou, Z. M. Seeley, S. A. Payne, A. Drobshoff, H. Comanzo, A. Srivastava, “Ba(1-x)SrxMg3SiN4:Eu Narrowband Red Phosphor,” Opt. Mat., 84, 130-136 (2018).
  10. W.C. Chuirazzi, I. Oksuz, P. Kandlakunta, T.N. Massey, C.R. Brune, N.J. Cherepy, H.P. Martinez, L.R. Cao, “Evaluation of Polyvinyl Toluene Scintillators for Fast Neutron Imaging,” J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem., 318, 543-551 (2018).
  11. E.L. Swanberg, N.J. Cherepy, P.R. Beck, Z.M. Seeley, B.M. Wihl, S.L. Hunter, S.E. Fisher, S.A. Payne, J. Kindem, “A Handheld Direction Indicating Gamma Spectrometer Using GYGAG(Ce) Scintillators on Si Photodiode Arrays,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 65 (8), 2303-2309 (2018).
  12. T.J. Hajagos, C. Liu, N.J. Cherepy, and Q. Pei, “High-Z Sensitized Plastic Scintillators: A Review,” Adv. Mater., 30, 1706956 (2018).
  13. N.J. Cherepy, Z.M. Seeley, S.A. Payne, E.L. Swanberg, P.R. Beck, D.J. Schneberk, G. Stone, B.M. Wihl, S.E. Fisher, S.L. Hunter, P.A. Thelin, T. Stefanik, J. Kindem, “Transparent Ceramic Scintillators for Gamma Spectroscopy and Imaging,” IEEE Nuc. Sci. Symp. Conf. Rec. 2017, (2018).
  14. NJ Cherepy, HP Martinez, RD Sanner, PR Beck, OB Drury, EL Swanberg, SA Payne, CR Hurlbut, B Morris, “New Plastic Scintillators for Gamma Spectroscopy, Neutron Detection and Imaging,” IEEE Nuc. Sci. Symp. Conf. Rec. 2017, (2018).
  15. I.K. Jones, Z.M. Seeley, N.J. Cherepy, E.B. Duoss, S.A. Payne, “Direct ink write fabrication of transparent ceramic gain media,” Optical Materials, 75, 19-25 (2018).
  16. N.J. Cherepy, P.R. Beck, S.A. Payne, E.L. Swanberg, B.M. Wihl, S.E. Fisher, S. Hunter, P.A. Thelin, C.J. Delzer, S. Shahbazi, A. Burger, K.S. Shah, R. Hawrami, L.A. Boatner, M. Momayezi, K. Stevens, M.H. Randles, D. Solodovnikov, “History and Current Status of Strontium Iodide Scintillators,” SPIE Optical Engineering+ Applications, OP17O-OP318-47 (2017).
  17. J. Xu, N.J. Cherepy, J. Ueda, S. Tanabe, “Red persistent luminescence in rare earth-free AlN: Mn2+ phosphor,” Materials Letters 206, 175-177 (2017).
  18. N.J. Cherepy, S.A. Payne, N.M. Harvey, D. Åberg, Z.M. Seeley, K.S. Holliday, I.C. Tran, F. Zhou, H.P. Martinez, J.M. Demeyer, A.D. Drobshoff, A.M. Srivastava, S.J. Camardello, H.A. Comanzo, D.L. Schlagel, T.A. Lograsso, “Red-emitting manganese-doped aluminum nitride phosphor,” Optical Materials 54, 14-21 (2016).
  19. R.D. Sanner, N.J. Cherepy, V.G. Young, Jr., “Blue Light Emission from Cyclometallated Iridium (III) Cyano Complexes: Syntheses, Crystal Structures, and Photophysical Properties,” Inorganica Chimica Acta, 440, 165-171 (2016).
  20. A. Burger, E. Rowe, M. Groza, K.M. Figueroa, N.J. Cherepy, P.R. Beck, S. Hunter, S.A. Payne “Cesium hafnium chloride: A high light yield, non-hygroscopic cubic crystal scintillator for gamma spectroscopy,” App. Phys. Lett. 107 (14), 143505 (2015).
  21. N.J. Cherepy, Z.M. Seeley, S.A. Payne, E.L. Swanberg, P.R. Beck, D.J. Schneberk, G. Stone, R. Perry, B. Wihl, S.E. Fisher, S.L. Hunter, P.A. Thelin, R.R. Thompson, N.M. Harvey, T. Stefanik, J. Kindem, “Transparent Ceramic Scintillators for Gamma Spectroscopy and MeV Imaging,” SPIE Optical Engineering+ Applications, 95930P-95930P-7 (2015).
  22. P.R. Beck, S.A. Payne, S. Hunter, L. Ahle, N.J. Cherepy, E.L. Swanberg, “Nonproportionality of Scintillator Detectors. V. Comparing the Gamma and Electron Response,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 62, 1429 – 1436 (2015).
  23. N.J. Cherepy, R.D. Sanner, P.R. Beck, E.L. Swanberg, T.M. Tillotson, S.A. Payne and C.R. Hurlbut, “Bismuth- and Lithium-Loaded Plastic Scintillators for Gamma and Neutron Detection,” Nucl. Instr. Methods Phys. A, 778, 126-132 (2015).
  24. Q Chen, W Cai, T Hajagos, D Kishpaugh, C Liu, N Cherepy, A Dooraghi, A. Chatziioannou, S. Payne, Q. Pei, “Bulk-Size Transparent Gadolinium Oxide-Polymer Nanocomposites for Gamma Ray Scintillation,” Nanotech, 295-296, (2014).
  25. Z.M. Seeley, N.J. Cherepy, S.A. Payne, “Expanded Phase Stability of Gd-Based Garnet Transparent Ceramic Scintillators,” J. Mater. Res., 29, 2332-2337 (2014).
  26. S.A. Payne, S. Hunter, L. Ahle, N.J. Cherepy, E. Swanberg, “Nonproportionality of Scintillator Detectors. III. Temperature Dependence Studies,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 61, 2771 – 2777 (2014).
  27. N.J. Cherepy, Z.M. Seeley, S.A. Payne, P.R. Beck, O.B. Drury, S.P. O'Neal, K. Morales Figueroa, S. Hunter, L Ahle, P.A. Thelin, T. Stefanik, J. Kindem, “Development of Transparent Ceramic Ce-Doped Gadolinium Garnet Gamma Spectrometers,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 60, 3, 2330 (2013).
  28. Z Seeley, N Cherepy, S Payne, Two-step sintering of Gd0.3Lu1.6Eu0.1O3 transparent ceramic scintillator,” Opt. Mater. Express 3 (7), 908-912 (2013).
  29. N.J. Cherepy, S.A. Payne, B.W. Sturm, O.B. Drury, S.P. O’Neal, P.A. Thelin, K.S. Shah, R. Hawrami, M. Momayezi, B. Hurst, A. Burger, B. Wiggins, P. Bhattacharya, L.A. Boatner, J.O. Ramey, “Instrument Development and Gamma Spectroscopy with Strontium Iodide,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 60 (2), 955 (2013).
  30. E. Rowe, P. Bhattacharya, E. Tupitsyn, M. Groza, A. Burger, N.J. Cherepy, S.A. Payne, B.W. Sturm, C. Pédrini “A New Lanthanide Activator for Iodide Based Scintillators: Yb2+,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 60 (2), 1057 (2013).
  31. Z.M. Seeley, N.J. Cherepy, S.A. Payne, “Homogeneity of Gd-Based Garnet Transparent Ceramic Scintillators for Gamma Spectroscopy,” J. Crystal Growth, 379, 79-83 (2013).
  32. R. Hawrami, J. Glodo, K. S. Shah, N. Cherepy, S. Payne, A. Burger, L. Boatner, “Bridgman Bulk Growth and Scintillation Measurements of SrI2:Eu, J. Crystal Growth, 379, 69-72 (2013).
  33. L. A. Boatner, J. O. Ramey, J. A. Kolopus, R. Hawrami, W. M. Higgins, E. van Loef, J. Glodo, K. S. Shah, P. Bhattacharya, E. Tupitsyn, M. Groza, A. Burger N. J. Cherepy and S. A Payne, “Bridgman Growth of Large SrI2:Eu2+ Single Crystals: A High-performance Scintillator for Radiation Detection Applications,” J. Crystal Growth, 379, 63-68 (2013).
  34. Seeley, ZM, Dai, ZR, Kuntz, JD, Cherepy, NJ, Payne, SA “Phase Stabilization in Transparent Lu2O3:Eu Ceramics by Lattice Expansion,” Optical Materials, 35 (1), 74 (2012).
  35. T Martin, P-A Douissard, Z Seeley, N Cherepy, S Payne, E Mathieu, and J Schuladen, “New High Stopping Power Thin Scintillators Based on Lu2O3 and Lu3Ga5-xInxO12 for High Resolution X-ray Imaging,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 59, (5), 2269 (2012).
  36. J WT Heemskerk, R Kreuger, MC Goorden, MAN Korevaar, S Salvador, ZM Seeley, NJ Cherepy, E van der Kolk, SA Payne, P Dorenbos, FJ Beekman, “Experimental comparison of high-density scintillators for EMCCD-based gamma ray imaging,” Phys. Med. Biol. 57, 4545 (2012).
  37. Zaitseva, N, Rupert, BL, Pawelczak, I, Glenn, A, Martinez, HP, Carman, L, Faust, M, Cherepy, N, Payne, S “Plastic scintillators with efficient neutron/gamma pulse shape discrimination,” Nucl. Instr. Meth. A, 668, 88-93 (2012).
  38. Rupert, BL; Cherepy, NJ; Sturm, BW; Sanner, RD; Payne, SA, “Bismuth-loaded plastic scintillators for gamma-ray spectroscopy,” Europhysics Lett., 97, 22002 (2012)
  39. D.J. Lorang, D. Tanaka, C.M. Spadaccini, K.A. Rose, N.J. Cherepy, J.A. Lewis, “Photocurable Liquid Core–Fugitive Shell Printing of Optical Waveguides,” Adv. Materials, 23 (43), 5055 ( 2011).
  40. Seeley, ZM, Kuntz, JD, Cherepy, NJ, Payne, SA, “Transparent Lu2O3(Eu) ceramics by sinter and HIP optimization,” Optical Materials, 33, 11,1721-1726 (2011).
  41. Payne S.A.; Moses W.W.; Sheets S.; Ahle, L.; Cherepy, N.J.; Sturm, B.; Dazeley, S.; Bizarri, G.; Choong, W.-S., “Nonproportionality of Scintillator Detectors: Theory and Experiment. II,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 58, 6, 3392-3402 (2011).
  42. N.J. Cherepy, S.A. Payne, B.W. Sturm, S.P O’Neal, Z.M. Seeley, O.B. Drury, L.K. Haselhorst, B.L. Rupert, R.D. Sanner, P.A. Thelin, S.E. Fisher, R. Hawrami, K.S. Shah, A. Burger, J. O. Ramey, L.A. Boatner, “Performance of Europium-Doped Strontium Iodide, Transparent Ceramics and Bismuth-loaded Polymer Scintillators,” Proc. SPIE, 8142, 81420W (2011).
  43. Cherepy, N.J.; Kuntz, J.D.; Seeley, Z.M.; Fisher, S.E.; Drury, O.B.; Sturm, B.W.; Hurst, T.A.; Sanner, R.D.; Roberts, J.J.; Payne, S.A., “Transparent ceramic scintillators for γ spectroscopy and radiography,” Proc. SPIE, 7805, 7805-01 (2010).
  44. N. J. Cherepy, B. W. Sturm, O. B. Drury; T. A. Hurst. S. A. Sheets, L. E. Ahle, C. K. Saw, M. A. Pearson, S. A. Payne, A. Burger, L. A. Boatner, J. O. Ramey, E. V. van Loef, J. Glodo, R. Hawrami, W. M. Higgins, K. S. Shah, W. W. Moses, “SrI2 scintillator for gamma ray spectroscopy ,” Proc. SPIE, 7449, 7449-0 (2009).
  45. N.J. Cherepy, S.A. Payne, S.J. Asztalos, G. Hull, J.D. Kuntz, T. Niedermayr, S. Pimputkar, J.J. Roberts, R.D. Sanner, T.M. Tillotson, E. van Loef, C.M. Wilson, K.S. Shah, U.N. Roy, R. Hawrami, A. Burger, L.A. Boatner, W.-S. Choong, “Scintillators with Potential to Supersede Lanthanum Bromide,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 56, 873-880 (2009).
  46. N.J. Cherepy, G. Hull, A. Drobshoff, S.A. Payne, E. van Loef, C. Wilson, K. Shah, U.N. Roy, A. Burger, L.A. Boatner, W-S Choong, W.W. Moses “Strontium and Barium Iodide High Light Yield Scintillators,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 083508 (2008).
  • SPIE Fellow (2018)
  • R&D 100 Award: “GLO Transparent Ceramic Scintillator for Radiography” (2016)
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Mid-Career Award (2016)
  • SPIE Senior Member (2015)
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (2015-present)
  • IEEE Senior Member (2014)
  • American Ceramics Society – Organizing Committee for Crystalline Materials (2015-present)
  • SPIE- Organizing Committee for Radiation Detector Physics (2008-present)
  • IEEE- Topic Convener for Photodetectors and Scintillation Detectors (2009-2010)
  • DHS/DNDO/TARD Award: "In Recognition of Your Superior Achievements in the Development of New High-Performance Scintillators" (2012)
  • R&D 100 Award: “Plastic scintillators for neutron and gamma discrimination” (2012)
  • R&D 100 Award: "Strontium Iodide Scintillator for Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy" (2010)
  • DOE Office of Science Outstanding Mentor Award (2009)
  • Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 Award: "Fabricating Transparent Ceramics from Flame Spray Pyrolysis Nanoparticles" (2008)