Characterization and evaluation of temperature-stabilized large volume CeBr3 detectors

Cerium Bromide scintillators (CeBr3) have received recent attention for gamma spectroscopy due to its absence of internal background, promising resolution, short scintillation decay time, and good stopping power. We report on the production and characterization of LED stabilized probes with scintillator sizes of 3.7 cm × 3.7 cm (OD x Length) and 5.1 cm × 5.1 cm. Excellent stability versus temperature has been demonstrated from -20 to 50 °C. Modeling capability with MCNP and commercial efficiency codes (ISOCS) show excellent agreement with measured data. Comparisons of resolution performance, shielded and unshielded background data, and intrinsic efficiencies show that CeBr3 probes meet or exceed the performance off-the-shelf NaI:Tl and LaBr3:Ce detectors.