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Measurements of high-energy -rays

with detectors
Michał Ciemała
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers,
Detectors and Associated Equipment

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 ARTICLE IN PRESS
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 608 (2009) 76–79

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in

Physics Research A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nima

Measurements of high-energy g-rays with LaBr3 : Ce detectors

M. Ciema"a a,, D. Balabanski b, M. Csatlós c, J.M. Daugas d, G. Georgiev e, J. Gulyás c, M. Kmiecik a,
A. Krasznahorkay c, S. Lalkovski f, A. Lefebvre-Schuhl e, R. Lozeva g, A. Maj a, A. Vitez c
a
The Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Radzikowskiego 152, 31-342 Kraków, Poland
b
INRNE, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BG-1784 Sofia, Bulgaria
c
Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (ATOMKI), P.O. Box 51, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
d
CEA, DAM, DIF, F-91297 Arpajon Cedex, France
e
Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse (CSNSM), IN2P3-CNRS and Université Paris-Sud, Bât 104-108, F-91405 Orsay Cedex, France
f
Faculty of Physics, University of Sofia, BG-1164, Bulgaria
g
Instituut voor Kernen Stralingsfysica (IKS), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

a r t i c l e in f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The full-energy peak efficiency calibration and the energy resolution measurements of the 2 in:  2 in:
Received 6 March 2009 LaBr3 g-ray detector are presented for g-ray energies in the 700 keV–17.6 MeV range. Measurements
Received in revised form 27
were done using a combination of proton-capture nuclear reactions on Al, 23 Na, 39 K, 7 Li and 11 B for
29 May 2009
high-energy g-rays, and radioactive sources such as 60 Co and 152 Eu for the lowest energies. At high
Accepted 8 June 2009
energies, two g-rays in a cascade from proton resonance capture were employed using Al, Na2 WO4 ,
Available online 16 June 2009
K2 SO4 and LiBO2 targets. The obtained results were compared to the simulations performed using a
Keywords: GEANT4 code.
Gamma-ray detection & 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Scintillation detectors
LaBr3 : Ce crystal

1. Introduction
Lanthanum halide ðLaBr3 : CeÞ scintillators offer very good
energy resolution (FWHM=E less than 3% at 662 keV), time
resolution (about 250 ps) [1–3] and have recently become
commercially available in sizes large enough for high-energy
g-ray measurements. Therefore, they are considered for use in
novel g-ray calorimeters, such as the PARIS array [4].
Test measurements, concerning detector efficiency and energy
resolution, were performed in the Institute of Nuclear Research of
the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (ATOMKI). Low energy g-rays
were studied using 60 Co and 152 Eu isotope sources, while the
high-energy region was covered by g-rays emitted in ðp; gÞ
reactions. Protons were accelerated to the resonance energies
(from 441 keV up to 1416.1 keV) by a 5 MV Van de Graff
accelerator, and impinged on different thin evaporated targets:
Al, Na2 WO4 , K2 SO4 and LiBO2 . The produced g-rays possessed
energies from 1.4 MeV up to 17.6 MeV.
2. Experiment
The measurements were performed using a cylindrical LaBr3 :
Ce scintillation detector (BrilLanCe 380 [5] with XP5500B
phototube) of 2 in. length and 2 in. diameter. It was placed in
 Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 693307953.
E-mail address: Michal.Ciemala@ifj.edu.pl (M. Ciema"a).
the distance of 15.5 cm from the target, at the angle of 55 in
respect to the proton beam direction. This distance was chosen to
minimize pile-up effects. To avoid light saturation of the PMT and
get a good linearity, phototube voltage was set to 570 V. Output
signal was amplified by CAEN N568B amplifier, and integrated for
1 ms. Then, the signal was digitized using Silena 9418/6W ADC.
Finally, the data were acquired by a computer-controlled multi-
channel (4096 channels) spectra analyzer.
At low energies the absolute efficiencies were measured using
g-ray sources: 60 Co, which had activity equal to 78.3 kBq during the
measurements and 152 Eu with activity 54.3 kBq. They were placed in
the distance of 15 cm from the front face of the LaBr3 : Ce detector.
The measurement time was adjusted to the activities of the
different sources in a way to get statistical errors smaller than 1% for
most of the relevant peaks. The energies and intensities of the g-rays
emitted from the 152 Eu and 60 Co sources were taken from Ref. [6].
The efficiency measurements for the high-energy region were
performed with proton beams from the 5 MV Van de Graff
accelerator of ATOMKI. Proton beam energies ðEp Þ which were used
are listed, for each reaction, in Table 1. Intensity of the proton beam
varied from 1.5 to 2 mA, its energy spread was less than 1 keV.
The proton capture nuclear reactions were chosen as in the
previous work [9] concerning germanium detector calibration.
The targets were produced from materials suitable for proton
capture. It means that the yield of g-rays emitted from such
reactions is high, the proton resonant energy is low and the target
is easy to prepare. The produced targets were thin enough to avoid
interferences with other resonances produced, in some cases, by

0168-9002/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.nima.2009.06.019
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
M. Ciema!a et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 608 (2009) 76–79 77

Table 1
Parameters of the ðp; gÞ reactions, energies ðEg Þ and relative intensities ðIg Þ of the g-rays emitted by product nucleus [9,11,12].

Reaction Eres (keV) Q value (keV) Ep (keV) Eg (keV) Ig Target and its
thickness ðmg=cm2 Þ

23
Naðp; gÞ24 Mg 1318.1 11 693 1323 1368.6(1) 1.000(2) Na2 WO4
11 584.9(6) 0.960(2) 20
23
Naðp; gÞ24 Mg 1416.9 11 693 1422 2754.0(1) 1.000(1) Na2 WO4
8925.2(6) 0.985(1) 20
27
Alðp; gÞ28 Si 767.2 11 585 770 2838.7(1) 1.0000(14) Al
7706.5(2) 0.9810(14) 15
39
Kðp; gÞ40 Ca 1346.6 8328 1351 3904.4(1) 1.000(1) K2 SO4
5736.5(1) 0.965(1) 20
11
Bðp; gÞ12 C 675 15 957 676 4438.0(3) 1.0000(7) LiBO2
12 137.1(3) 1.0000(7) 75
7
Liðp; gÞ8 Be 441 17 255 450 17 619.0(6) – LiBO2 , 75

Nuclear data are taken from ENSDF [13]. Q values calculated by QCalc from NNDC [14].

lower energy protons. The target materials and their properties

are listed in Table 1, including also the information of the ðp; gÞ
reactions chosen for the measurements, such as proton capture
resonance energy ðEres Þ and the amount of energy released by that
reaction (Q value). The excitation energy of the resonance is equal
to Eres þ Q . The chosen proton energies were higher than Eres by
average energy loss in the target. It is worth to notice, that
Na2 WO4 target was used in two reactions with different proton
beam energies leading to different bound states which decay by
the g-ray emission.
The method called ‘‘point-pair’’ or ‘‘two-line’’ described in
Refs. [7–10] was applied to obtain the efficiency calibration. It is
based on measurement of two g-ray transitions emitted
in a cascade from the proton resonance capture reaction,
possessing low and high energy. The energy of the lowest g-ray
transition was in the region of known efficiency, already
calibrated by the sources, so its efficiency was obtained from
the source measurements. The other belonged to the higher,
uncalibrated energy range. Since both g-rays are emitted in a
cascade with the same intensity, therefore the efficiency for the
high-energy g-ray was easy to deduce. The procedure was Fig. 1. Gamma-ray spectrum emitted by 24 Mg nuclei created in the 23 Naðp; gÞ24 Mg
repeated step by step using cascades with g-ray pairs having reaction at the 1.318 MeV resonance energy, measured by a LaBr3 : Ce 2 in:  2 in:
higher energies, and in this way the absolute efficiency was scintillation detector.

obtained up to 12.1 MeV. Efficiency for 17.6 MeV cannot be

obtained with this method, as in 7 Liðp; gÞ8 Be reaction there are
no two g-rays in a cascade.

3. Results

The g-ray spectra emitted from ðp; gÞ reactions were measured

with the studied 2 in:  2 in: LaBr3 : Ce detector. Fig. 1 presents
energy range above 2 MeV of the g-ray spectrum obtained from
the 23 Naðp; gÞ24 Mg reaction. It should be noted that even for
17.6 MeV g-ray energy, it is possible to see the full absorption, first
and second escape peaks (Fig. 2). Because of the low phototube
voltage the dependence between the channel number and energy
was linear up to 10 MeV. For 12 MeV the non-linearity became 4%
and at 17 MeV it increased up to 10% as can be seen in Fig. 3.
The g-ray spectra were analyzed with the non-linear peak
fitting software Gaspan [15].
The relative energy resolution ðFWHM=EÞ was calculated from
the data obtained in measurements. All data points with their
uncertainties are presented in Fig. 4. Relative energy resolution
improves with energy from 2.1% at 1.3 MeV to less than 1% at
Fig. 2. Gamma-ray spectrum emitted by 8 Be nuclei created in the 7 Liðp; gÞ8 Be
10 MeV and reaches about 0.7% at 17.6 MeV, which is so far the reaction, measured by a LaBr3 : Ce 2 in:  2 in: scintillation detector. It is compared,
best known value for scintillation detectors. Its dependence on the after normalization to the full absorption peak, to spectrum simulated using a
g-ray energy (in keV) was fitted by the following function (dashed GEANT4 code.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
78 M. Ciema!a et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 608 (2009) 76–79

Fig. 3. Linearity between the channel number and the energy deposited in a Fig. 5. Internal full absorption efficiency for g-rays in a LaBr3 : Ce 2 in:  2 in:
LaBr3 : Ce 2 in:  2 in: scintillation detector with XP5500B phototube and HV set to scintillation detector, in comparison to GEANT4 simulations.
570 V.

12.1 MeV (i.e. without the 17.6 MeV point from the 7 Liðp; gÞ8 Be
reaction). The absolute full absorption efficiency for high energy
region was obtained by normalizing it to the low energy part in
the overlapping range around 1.4 MeV. This procedure is described
in Ref. [10].
The efficiency for 17.6 MeV g-ray energy was estimated from
the total charge of proton beam and cross-section for 7 Liðp; gÞ8 Be
reaction at 441 keV proton energy [18].
Full absorption efficiency of a detector was divided by its solid
angle (which was slightly different for measurement with sources
and reactions due to different distances). As a result internal
efficiency was obtained. Due to the high Z of La, the internal
efficiency of a 2 in:  2 in: LaBr3 : Ce detector was found equal to
22.6(7)% for 1173 keV, 1.3(2)% for 11.6 MeV and 0.65(12)% for
17.6 MeV. The measured experimental internal efficiencies are
presented in Fig. 5 as a function of g-ray energy.
The measured spectra were compared with the calculated ones
obtained using a GEANT4 code [19]. In the simulations only a
LaBr3 : Ce crystal and 1 mm thick aluminum covering of the
detector were taken into account. The standard GEANT4 electro-
magnetic physics list was included with G4PhotoElectricEffect,
Fig. 4. Relative energy resolution of a LaBr3 : Ce 2 in:  2 in: scintillation detector.
G4ComptonScattering and G4GammaConversion interactions. The
result of the simulation for the 7 Liðp; gÞ8 Be reaction is presented
line in Fig. 4): in Fig. 2 for the high energy part of the g-ray spectrum. The peaks
widths were assumed to follow the formula FWHM=E (Eq. (1)).
FWHME ¼ 77:1ð12Þ  E0:5 ½% (1) The measured efficiencies were also compared to the ones
which agrees, within uncertainty, with the parametrization used calculated by the GEANT4 code. The result, shown in Fig. 5,
in the work of van Loef et al. [16] for low energy g-rays. To presents the good agreement between experimental data and
produce better convergence between fitted function and data calculations.
points, especially for higher energy region, second fit was done. In
that fit beside internal statistical source of fluctuation, which is
proportional to A  E0:5 , second part that may be related to 4. Conclusions
additional fluctuation sources was added [17] (solid line in Fig. 4):
The test measurements of the efficiency and relative energy
FWHM
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
¼ 5034:9ð628Þ  E1 þ 0:165ð15Þ ½%. (2) resolution of the 2 in:  2 in: LaBr3 : Ce detector were performed
E for the g-ray energies in the 700 keV–17.6 MeV range. Obtained
The absolute full absorption efficiency for the low energy range results show that dependence between the channel number and
(up to 1.408 MeV) was obtained using 60 Co and 152 Eu sources. The energy was linear up to 10 MeV energy. Non-linear effects which
relative full absorption efficiency in the high energy range (i.e. appear for higher g-ray energies should be carefully investigated
above 1.368 MeV) was obtained using the ‘‘point-pair’’ method in future tests.
and ðp; gÞ reactions. As this procedure requires two g-ray The achieved relative energy resolution was found to be the
transitions in a cascade, so the efficiency was measured up to best among the scintillation detectors. For low energy g-rays
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
M. Ciema!a et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 608 (2009) 76–79
(1.3 MeV) it is equal to 2.1% and improves to 1% at 10 MeV and to
about 0.7% for 17.6 MeV.
Internal efficiency of a 2 in:  2 in: LaBr3 : Ce detector was
measured for g-rays in a wide energy range. It decreases with the
g-ray energy from 22.6(7)% for 1173 keV to 0.65(12)% for 17.6 MeV.
The obtained results are described well by the simulations
performed using a GEANT4 code.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the Polish Ministry of
Science and Higher Education (Grant nos. 1 P03B 030 30 and N
N202 309135), Bulgarian Science Fund (Grant nos. VUF06/05 and
BRS03/07), Hungarian OTKA Foundation (No. K72566), Flemish
Science Foundation FWO Project no. G0446-05, the Belgian
Science Policy IAP Project no. P6/23 and EU FP7 project SP2PP
(Contract no. 212692).
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