Timing resolution measurements of a 3 in. lanthanum bromide detector

Abstract

Cerium-doped lanthanum bromide (LaBr3:Ce) is a scintillator that presents very good energy and timing resolutions and it is a perfect candidate for photon detector in future experiments to search for lepton flavor violation as in μ→eγ or μ→e conversion. While energy resolution was thoroughly investigated, timing resolution at several MeV presents some experimental challenge. We measured the timing resolution of a 3 in. x 3 in. cylindrical LaBr3(Ce) crystal versus few reference detectors by means of a nuclear reaction from a Cockcroft-Walton accelerator that produces coincident γ-rays in the 4.4-11.6 MeV range. Preliminary results allow us to extrapolate the properties of a segmented γ-ray detector in the 50-100 MeV range. & 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.