Minimum detectable activity concentration of radio-cesium by a LaBr3(Ce) detector for in situ measurements on the ground-surface and in boreholes

Evaluation of Full-Energy-Peak Efficiencies for a Labr3:Ce Scintillator Through a Virtual Point Detector Approach

“…The improved properties of a LaBr 3 :Ce scintillator, such as higher energy resolution, faster response time, excellent energy linearity and higher light yield than a common NaI(Tl) scintillator, make it a very interesting tool for various measurement applications. It is noteworthy the possibility of realizing a lightweight portable LaBr 3 :Ce device for "in situ" gamma-ray spectrometry to be used for environmental monitoring, characterization of contaminated sites or control around nuclear plants (Garnett et al, 2017;Hasan et al, 2022;Ji et al, 2018;Milbrath et al, 2007). However, its use is limited by the intrinsic activity due to the presence of 138 La and 227 Ac in the detector, with the need for low activity samples to subtract an energy-calibrated background spectrum from the measured one.…”