Reportedly, zinc sufide (ZnS) doped with Ag or Al or Cu is the most energy-efficient scintillator: one estimate says it's 30 %, that is, for an optimized composition (doping, crystal size, etc.) a single 10 keV electron fully stopped in a thin layer of this material results in the emission of ~ 1500 photons of nominal ~ 2 eV, a total of 3 keV in photon energy, over 4 pi. I have found numerous references with data, for all kinds of scintillators (for short-emission time materials at e.g., scintillator.lbl.gov, which does not include ZnS because its long emission time excludes it from this list), but very few (and old) references to a theory (e.g., Klasen, 1947).

What is the best place to find such a theory, preferably starting with something primitive that a non-solid-state physicist can follow?

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