LaBr3 – Standard and Enhanced detectors

Lanthanum bromide [LaBr3] scintillation materials have been the reference for high-performance energy resolution combined with fast emission and good linearity. In the fall of 2016, Enhanced Lanthanum Bromide [LaBr3(Ce+Sr)] scintillation crystals with even better energy resolution were introduced. The FWHM for a 2×2″ crystal has been measured to be 2.6%. The FWHM for the enhanced LaBr3 scintillation detector has been measured to be 2.2% at 662 keV. The enhanced lanthanum bromide scintillator material retains most of the excellent properties of the standard lanthanum bromide and improves the energy resolution. The doubly doped Enhanced LaBr3 detector offers a new feature: a difference in decay time between gamma and alpha that is not observed in the standard LaBr3 detector. Useful feature to eliminate the contribution of the naturally occurring background activity by digital pulse shaped discrimination technique.

A unique aspect of LaBr is the background peak that can be used as a built-in reference for stabilization. 1436 + 32 keV can be used as a calibration peak or as a constant and known activity that can be subtracted to obtain K40 yield.