Comparison of different gamma-ray detectors with respect to energy resolution and performance

The German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) maintains a network of about two thousand radiation detectors spread all over Germany. The task is to survey the exposure of humans and animals to radiation and its local variation. Because of the wide range of involved energies (a few keV up to several MeV) and to keep up constantly good performance during changes in temperature and humidity e.g., special detector systems are needed. With respect to these demands different commercially available detector systems are compared in this work: A Lanthanum Bromide (LaBr3) scintillator, a Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Coplanar Grid (CZT-CPG) detector and a Cesium-Iodide (CsI) scintillator.