  A strontium iodide crystal doped by europium (SrI2(Eu)) was produced by using
the Stockbarger growth technique. The crystal was subjected to a
characterization that includes relative photoelectron output and energy
resolution for gamma quanta. The intrinsic radioactivity of the SrI2(Eu)
crystal scintillator was tested both by using it as scintillator at sea level
and by ultra-low background HPGe gamma spectrometry deep underground. The
response of the SrI2(Eu) detector to alpha particles (alpha/beta ratio and
pulse shape) was estimated by analysing the 226Ra internal trace contamination
of the crystal. We have measured: alpha/beta=0.55 at E_alpha=7.7 MeV, and no
difference in the time decay of the scintillation pulses induced by alpha
particles and gamma quanta. The application of the obtained results in the
search for the double electron capture and electron capture with positron
emission in 84Sr has been investigated at a level of sensitivity: T_1/2 \sim
10^{15}-10^{16} yr. The results of these studies demonstrate the potentiality
of this material for a variety of scintillation applications, including
low-level counting experiments.
