Study of linearity and internal background for LaBr3(Ce) gamma-ray scintillation detector

Cerium-doped lanthanum bromide, LaBr3(Ce), crystal is the latest among the scintillation counters and shows same attracting properties for gamma spectroscopy that makes it a suitable solution for security, medical, geophysics and high energy physics applications. LaBr3(Ce) exhibits a proportional light yield response to gamma-ray energy. Very good linearity was seen up to 2 MeV. LaBr3(Ce) has also relatively high intrinsic radiation background due to naturally occurring La-138 and (227)AC radioisotopes. A good use of LaBr3(Ce) needs an accurate determination of the self-activity, particularly when low background is required or when events are collected at very low trigger rates. The impact of internal background on energy resolution and linearity is discussed.