Large size LYSO crystals for future high energy physics experiments

Abstract

Because of their high stopping power and fast bright scintillation, cerium doped silicate based heavy crystal scintillators, such as GSO, LSO, and LYSO, have been developed for medical instruments. Their applications in high energy and nuclear physics, however, are limited by lacking high quality crystals in sufficiently large size. The optical and scintillation properties, including the transmittance, emission and excitation spectra and the light output, decay kinetics and light response uniformity, as well as their degradation under γ-ray irradiation were measured for two long (2.5 × 2.5 × 20 cm) LYSO samples from CPI and Saint-Gobain, and were compared to a BGO sample of the same size from SIC. Possible applications for crystal calorimetry in future high energy and nuclear physics experiments are discussed. © 2005 IEEE.