Further measurements of the scintillation properties of lead carbonate

Journal Article · Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/23.289369· OSTI ID:5095299

Moses, W W; Derenzo, S E ^[1]; Levy, P W; Kierstead, J A ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States)
2. Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)

This paper presents measurements on the scintillation properties of lead carbonate (PbCO{sub 3}), a heavy inorganic scintillator. The light output of the natural crystal cerussite was measured during {sup 60}Co irradiation at 23{degrees}C. After an exposure of {gt}2.5 {times} 10{sup 6} rad the light output increased by 25% and no visible crystal coloring occurred, thus PbCO{sub 3} appears to be useful in high radiation fields. The emission spectrum was adequately described by a sum of four gaussian peaks whose position and width did not change during the irradiation. The scintillation light output is temperature dependent, increasing with decreasing temperature from 680 photons/MeV at +30{degrees}C to 3200 photons/MeV at {minus}40{degrees}C to 11,900 photons/MeV at {minus}120{degrees}C. The scintillation decay lifetime was measured with the delayed coincidence method between +30{degrees}C and {minus}140{degrees}C and fit to the sum of four exponentials. At 30{degrees}C the four components are 20% at 3.9 ns, 44% at 24 ns, 26% at 186 ns, and 11% at 1.40{mu}s. At {minus}40{degrees}C the four components are 24% at 37 ns, 45% at 107 ns, 18% at 359 ns, and 12% at 1.07 {mu}s. At {minus}120{degrees}C the four components are 0.5% at 1.8 ns, 3.5% at 3.8 ns, 40% at 539 ns, and 56% at 2.71 {mu}s. From 30{degrees}C to {minus}140{degrees}C the initial flux remains constant at about 45 photons/ns/MeV. This indicates that, with decreasing temperature, the energy resolution of PbCO{sub 3} improves, the dead time increases, and the timing resolution remains constant. The timing spectrum from a synthetic crystal at 25{degrees}C is fit by three components: 22% at 2.0 ns, 69% at 15 ns, and 9% at 92 ns, suggesting that the slower components seen in natural crystals are due to impurities not present in synthetic crystals.

• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098; AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 5095299
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Vol. 38:2; ISSN 0018-9499
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
LEAD CARBONATES
RADIATION EFFECTS
SCINTILLATIONS
COBALT 60
COINCIDENCE METHODS
CRYSTALS
ENERGY RESOLUTION
IRRADIATION
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TIMING PROPERTIES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBONATES
COBALT ISOTOPES
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
INTERNAL CONVERSION RADIOISOTOPES
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LEAD COMPOUNDS
MINUTES LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOISOTOPES
RESOLUTION
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOT
360605* - Materials- Radiation Effects
440200 - Radiation Effects on Instrument Components
Instruments
or Electronic Systems