Scintillation properties of lead sulfate

We report on the scintillation properties of lead sulfate (PbSO4), a scintillator that show 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/cm(exp 3), 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 percent 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 percent) and 19 ns (36 percent) decay times, but with longer components having 95 ns (36 percent) and 425 ns (23 percent) decays 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 C to 4,900 photons/MeV at room temperature (+25 C) and 68,500 photons/MeV at -145 C. In an imperfect, 3 mm cube of a naturally occurring mineral form of PbSO4 (anglesite) at room temperature, a 511 keV photopeak is seen with a total light output of 60 percent that BGO. There are significant sample to sample variations of the light output among anglesite samples, so the light output of lead sulfate may improve when large synthetic crystals become available.