Comparison of a LaBr3 (Ce) Scintillation Detector With a Large Volume CdZnTe Detector

The performance of hand-held radioisotope identification devices (RIDs) is still hampered by the performance of the NaI(Tl) detectors, which are commonly used in such instruments. In this paper, we continue the search for better detector options. One of the largest single elements ever made, a coplanar CdZnTe (CZT) detector (30times15times12.1 mm³ volume 5.45 cm³ designed by University of Michigan) is compared with a commercially available LaBr₃(Ce) detector (ominus1´´times1´´ volume 12.9 cm³.) Parameters that are relevant to the performance of isotope identification devices, such as resolution and efficiency as function of the gamma-ray energy, temperature shift, linearity and others are measured and compared. According to measurement results, it seems that for this application LaBr₃(Ce) detectors are a viable alternative to CZT detectors; even more so if one bears in mind that LaBr₃(Ce) became commercially available only recently and detectors with larger volumes are likely to appear in the near future