Study of low-energy gamma-ray detection performance of silicon photomultiplier with LaBr3(Ce) scintillator

Abstract

Recent progress in the field of scintillators and silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) has allowed development of new scintillation detectors capable of detecting low-energy X- and gamma-ray sources that are widely used in medicine, security and industry. Such scintillation detectors are compact, insensitive to magnetic fields, have low operation voltages and are functional at room temperature. These advantages of SiPM are considered to solve the main problems facing scintillation detectors in medicine and industry today. Development of detectors of low-energy electromagnetic radiation is relevant now. Scintillation detectors based on lutetium fine silicate, LaBr3(Ce), NaI and silicon avalanche photomultipliers offer a great potential for use for X- and gamma-ray detection. The present work demonstrates the gamma-ray detection performance of a new micropixel avalanche photodiode (MAPD) array (16 (4×4) elements – 15×15 cm) with a LaBr3(Ce) scintillator (15×15×30 mm) using 177Lu and 133Ba isotopes as the gamma-ray sources.