In recent years many new scintillating compounds were proposed, however, th
ere is still need for new fast and high light output scintillators. Prompte
d by this demand, we have studied a set of 28 crystal structures of known s
cintillators and phosphors doped by cerium, terbium and europium. The aim o
f this communication is to identify the crystallographic properties of cont
emporary scintillator responsible for their high light output. We have foun
d that high light output of a scintillator is positively correlated with th
e difference between the sum of the ionic radii of dopant and ligand, and t
he bond length of metal-ligand in the host lattice. This correlation is exa
mined for various hosts and their band gaps. The possible influence on carr
ier capture by dopants and on relaxation of the lattice in these scintillat
ors is discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.