Effects of Ce concentration on scintillation properties of LaBr3:Ce

In this communication, we investigate the scintillation properties of LaBr₃:Ce as a function of Ce concentration. We have studied crystals nominally doped with 0.5%, 5%, 10%, 20%, and 30%Ce (by mole). Previous reports suggest that as the Ce content increases, there is a decrease in light output and little or no change in decay time constants. These results show that the light output does not change with Ce concentration up to 30% and depends mostly on the crystal quality. On the other hand we have found the timing properties to be a strong function of Ce concentration. As the Ce content increases, the principal decay time constant of scintillation decreases from ∼26 ns for 0.5%Ce to ∼17 ns for crystals with >5% Ce. Moreover, there is a significant change in rise time constants. The rise time measured for a sample doped with 0.5%Ce is up to 9 ns, whereas for samples doped with >10% Ce it is less than 0.5 ns. The change of rise time has a major effect on the timing properties of this scintillator, with timing resolution improving from 361 ps to less than 100 ps (full width at half maximum).