CaF2(Eu): An “Old” scintillator revisited

Homeland security applications demand high performance Compton-camera systems, with high detector efficiency, good nuclide identification and able to operate in-field conditions. A low-Z scintillator has been proposed and studied as a promising candidate for use in the scattering plane of a scintillator-based Compton camera: CaF2(Eu). All the relevant properties for the application of this scintillator in a mobile Compton camera system have been addressed: the energy resolution and the non-linearity at room temperature and in the temperature range of −20°C to +55°C, the photoelectron yield and the relative light yield in the relevant temperature range. A new method of inferring the relative light output of scintillators as a function of temperature has been proposed.