Scintillation properties of lead sulfate

In this paper the authors report on the scintillation properties of lead sulfate (PbSO4), a scintillator that shows promise as a high energy photon detector. Its physical properties are well suited for gamma detection, as it has a density of 6.4 gm/cm3, a 1/e attenuation length for 511 keV photons of 1.2 cm, is not affected by air or moisture, and is cut and polished easily. In 99.998% pure PbSO4 crystals at room temperature excited by 511 keV annihilation photons, the fluorescence decay lifetime contains significant fast components having 1.8 ns (5%) and 19 ns (36%) decay times, but with longer components having 95 ns (36%) and 425 ns (23%) decay times. The peak emission wavelength is 335 nm, which is transmitted by borosilicate glass windowed photomultiplier tubes. The total scintillation light output increases with decreasing temperature from 3,200 photons/MeV at +45 degrees C to 4,900 photons/MeV at room temperature (+25 degrees C) and 68,500 photons/MeV at - 145 degrees C