On reachable energy resolution of SiPM based scintillation counters for X-ray detection

Presently, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are very attractive devices to replace photomultipliers for light detection in many different fields. For example, they could be used in detectors of photons with energies of 20–150 keV for medical and nondestructive testing applications. The small size and high electron gain of SiPMs make them very attractive candidates for pixelated X-ray detectors operating in a photon counting mode. In this research we evaluated the detector performance that can be reached with up-to-date Lu -based scintillators. Application of LYSO:Ce and LFS-3 scintillators provides high count rate capability because of a short scintillator decay time of ∼ 40 ns but enables reaching just a moderate energy resolution. Meanwhile, with a LuYAG:Pr scintillator of quite low non-proportionality one can attain much better energy resolution at a reduced rate.