A PROMISING NEW SCINTILLATOR - CERIUM-DOPED LUTETIUM OXYORTHOSILICATE

We have discovered a new inorganic single scintillator [1], lutetium oxyorthosilicate doped with cerium, Lu2(SiO4)O:Ce (or "LSO"), which has a unique combination of properties including high emission intensity, fast decay time, high density, and high atomic number. These properties result in excellent signal-to-noise, fast coincidence timing, high count-rate capability, and high detection efficiency making LSO superior to any other known scintillator for many applications. This new scintillator has several important advantages over the scintillator crystals currently used for the detection of gamma rays or X-rays in applications such as medical imaging, nuclear and particle physics, and geophysical exploration. Here we compare the properties of LSO to those of the two most widely used scintillators, namely thallium-doped sodium iodide and bismuth germanate.