Abstract:
Cerium (Ce) doped LaCl3 and LaBr3 have been invented by Delft and Bern Universities and some other groups. Their commercial availability has been made by Saint-Gobain. This project aims to characterize LaCl3:Ce scintillator detector for the gamma ray spectrometry. The study includes determination of detection efficiency, energy resolution, time resolution and photo-fraction. LaCl3:Ce detector of the size 25.4 mm × 25.4 mm doped with 0.9% of Ce has good linear response and good energy resolution for gamma rays at room temperature. Timing resolution is also obtained with two LaCl3 detectors operating in coincidence using Na-22 sources that emits 511 keV gammas. The photo-peak efficiency and photo-fraction of 662keV and 1120keV gamma-rays are measured. The absolute photo-peak efficiency and absolute total detection efficiency are measured with Co-60 and corrected for coincidence summing. Also, the measured results are reproduced by GEANT4 simulations assuming detector in a realistic geometry.
