High count rate γ–ray spectroscopy with LaBr3:Ce scintillation detectors
B. Löhera, b, D. Savrana, b, c, E. Fioria, b, M. Miklavecd, N. Pietrallae, M. Venceljd
a ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI and Research Division, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Planckstr. 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
b Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies FIAS, Ruth-Moufang-Str. 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
c Innovation Centre for Advanced Sensors and Sensor Systems, INCAS3, Assen, The Netherlands
d Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
e Institut für Kernphysik, TU Darmstadt, Schlossgartenstr. 9, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
Abstract
The applicability of LaBr3:Ce detectors for high count rate γ–ray spectroscopy is investigated. A3″×3″ LaBr3:Ce detector is used in a test setup with radioactive sources to study the dependence of energy resolution and photo peak efficiency on the overall count rate in the detector. Digitized traces were recorded using a 500 MHz FADC and analysed with digital signal processing methods. Good performance is obtained using standard techniques up to about 500 kHz counting rate. A pile-up correction method is applied to the data in order to further improve the capabilities at even higher rates with a focus on recovering the losses in efficiency due to signal pile-up. It is shown, that γ–ray spectroscopy can be performed with only moderate lossen in efficiency and high resolution at count rates even above 1 MHz and that the performance can be enhanced in the region between 500 kHz and 10 MHz by using the applied pile-up correction techniques.
Link to the full article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2012.05.051