Whether the light yield amplification by laser could significantly improve the energy resolution of a scintillation detector?

In 2012, Wehe D.K. and coauthors proposed a method of light yield amplification in scintillation detectors. A trivalent activator ion RE³⁺ captures an electron produced by a particle in scintillator and becomes a divalent rare earth ion RE²⁺. The scintillator is illuminated by laser photons that excite RE²⁺ ions, which quickly de-excite and generate light photons. By cyclically excitation RE²⁺ ions, one can obtain many light photons during any chosen accumulation time. Authors suggested that this method could remove scintillation yield as a limiting factor of the energy resolution of scintillation detectors. This conclusion was based on rather simplified theoretical examination of the pulse formation process in an amplified scintillator. In this work, the theory of branching cascade processes was applied to description of the pulse formation process. The general formula for the energy resolution of an amplified scintillator was derived. From this formula, it follows that the scintillation yield is not a limiting factor of the energy resolution of amplified scintillation detectors. It was shown that the relative reduction in the energy resolution of an amplified scintillation detector with reference to an ordinary scintillation detector is less than a few percent.