Characterization and performance of LaBr₃:Ce detectors coupled with Hamamatsu make R2083 pm tube

There are many advantages of LaBr₃:Ce scintillator viz. better energy resolution, fast decay time, high detection efficiency, stability of light output with respect to temperature. The light yield of LaBr₃:Ce is very high (61,000 photons per MeV). This gives rise to energy resolution of ~ 3% (FWHM) at 662keV for LaBr₃Ce, the best for any scintillator by far. For fast timing measurement, it is desirable to have short electron transit time. The PM Tube R2083 has electron transit time of 16ns and is thus suitable for fast timing measurement. There is no measurement till date to the best of our knowledge on the characterization of LaBr₃Ce coupled to R2083. This paper presents the result of our measurement and characterization of 1 inch X 1inch LaBr₃Ce crystals coupled with Hamamatsu make R2083 PM tube. We have measured parameters like energy resolution, time resolution and linearity of the response using standard radioactive sources. The dependence of resolution on energy has also been studied using different gamma ray sources having range of gamma energy values