Quality of a 28 cm long LYSO crystal and progress on optical and scintillation properties

Because of their high stopping power and fast and bright scintillation, cerium doped LSO and LYSO crystals have attracted a broad interest in the physics community pursuing precision electromagnetic calorimeter for future high energy physics experiments. Their excellent radiation hardness against γ-rays, neutrons and charged hadrons also makes them a preferred material for calorimeters to be operated in a severe radiation environment, such as the SLHC. An effort was made at SIPAT to grow 25 X₀ (28 cm) long LYSO crystals for high energy physics applications. In this paper, the optical and scintillation properties and its radiation harness against γ-ray irradiations up to 1 Mrad are presented for the first 2.5 × 2.5 × 28 cm LYSO sample. An absorption band was found at the seed end of this sample and three other long samples, which was traced back to a bad seed crystal used in the corresponding crystal growth process. Significant progresses in optical and scintillation properties were achieved for large size LYSO crystals after eliminating this absorption band.