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LYSO Scintillator Intrinsic Background and

Energy Resolution

T.W.J. de Wild (S2961830)


Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
December, 2017

Contents 1
1 Introduction and Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Experimental Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4 Conclusion and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1 Introduction and Background


Cerium doped lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate (Lu2(1−x) Y2x SiO5 , LYSO:Ce) scintillator
crystals are known for their excellent scintillation properties such as high light yield, high
density and fast decay time. Compared to the commonly used NaI(Tl) scintillator crystals,
LYSO crystal has a high density (7.1 vs. 3.67 g/cm3 ), comparable light yield (30000 vs. 38000
photons/MeV) and is non-hygroscopic.1 For these reasons, LYSO scintillators are considered
as an innovative and interesting alternative.
This short report describes a short experiment performed with two main objectives: (a)
to determine the intrinsic background of the LYSO crystal and (b) to determine the energy
resolution at different energies. The LYSO crystal possesses an intrinsic background due
to the (natural) presence of lutitium Lu-176 nuclei, which are radioactive and decay via
β + emission to (an excited state of) Hf-176. The decay chain for this process and the
corresponding energies are shown in Fig. 1 (a). In the decay scheme, also the angular
momentum J and parity P = ±1 configuration are given for each energy state and denoted
as J ± . First, the radioactive Lu-176 nucleus decays into 6+ excited Hf-176 via the emission
of a β − (electron) and an anti-electron neutrino ν̄e :
176
Lu → 176
Hf(6+ ) + β − + ν̄e . (1)
Since the above reaction is a 3-body decay, the corresponding energy spectrum is expected
to be continuous. The spectrum will end at the so-called Q-value, expressing the maximum
1
Comparison data is taken from the Saint-Gobain website (visited december 2017): https://www.
crystals.saint-gobain.com/sites/imdf.crystals.com/files/documents/lyso-material-data-sheet_
0.pdf.

1
1. Introduction and Background 2

Figure 1: Decay schemes for Lu-176 and Na-22. The angular momentum J and
parity P configuration of each energy state are indicated using the notation J P .

amount of energy released in the decay (i.e. the energy difference between the parent and
daughter nucleus). For β − decay of Lu-176 nuclei, the Q value is 1192.8 keV.2 Subsequently,
the 6+ excited Hf-176 state decays in subsequent steps to the 0+ ground state of Hf-176.
The transition energies are given in the decay scheme as well. In the performed experiment,
it is aimed to determine both the Q-value and the nuclear transition energies by means of
coincidence setup with two LYSO scintillators.
In addition, as mentioned above, the spectrum of an external sodium (Na-22) source is
recorded using the LYSO scintillators in different setups. The decay scheme of Na-22 nuclei
is given in Fig. 1 (b). As can be seen from the decay scheme, Na-22 can decay into 2+
excited Ne-22 either via β + emission (probability 90.6%) or via electron capture EC (9.4%).
Subseqeuntly, the Ne-22 excited state decays to the ground state by releasing a 1274.5 keV
photon (this feature is visible in the spectrum as the photopeak). Due to the dominant β +
mode, a characteristic peak will also be present at 511 keV, resulting from the annihilation
of the produced β + with an atomic electron, creating two 511 keV photons:

β + + e− → 2γ, (2)

which are emitted in opposite directions as enforced by conservation of momentum. Using


this so-called annihilation peak in the spectrum, the scinitillators will be calibrated and in
addition the energy resolution (at 511 keV) will be determined. The energy resolution R(E)
is a function of the energy and is defined in terms of the Full-Width-at-Half-Maximum or
standard deviation σ and the peak centroid hEi as follows:

FWHM √ σ
R(E) = = 2 2 ln 2 . (3)
hEi hEi

In deriving the above relation, it is assumed that the annihilation peak is well approximated
2
This Q value and the transition energies in Fig. 1 are taken from the online Lund/LBNL Nuclear
Database: http://nucleardata.nuclear.lu.se/toi/.
3

Figure 2: Left: top view of the two LYSO scintillator detectors. Right: side view.

by a Gaussian distribution f (E) around the peak centroid value hEi:

(E − hEi)2
 
f (E) = A exp − , (4)
2σ 2

where A is an amplitude to be determined by the fitting and σ is the standard deviation. For
a Gaussian, the FWHM is related to the standard deviation via:

FWHM = 2 2 ln 2σ ' 2.355σ. (5)

In addition to the determination at 511 keV, the energy resolution will also be determined
at 202 and 307 keV, corresponding to the Hf-176 nuclear transitions 4+ → 2+ and 6+ → 4+ ,
respectively. The peaks for these transitions will be obtained by means of coincidence setup
using with two LYSO scintillators.
The remaining part of this paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the experi-
mental setup will discussed globally. The results are presented in section 3. Finally, possible
improvements are discussed and conclusions are given in section 4.

2 Experimental Setup
Fig. 2 shows the setup with the two LYSO scintillators used in the experiment. In order to
shield the detectors from background illumination, the LYSO crystals are covered in black
tape. However, in order to assure the produced photons are not absorbed by the black
tape, the crystal surface is first covered by a layer of white teflon tape, so that the photons
produced in the crystal are reflected back in case they hit the crystal surface. The metal
boxes contain the electronics to the transform the photon signal into an electronic signal. For
both detectors, the optimal bias voltage turned out to be slightly different: 70.88 and 70.30
V for detector 1 and 2, respectively. The signals are collected in an electronic unit and then
formatted to be stored on a computer. In addition to the separate spectra for both detectors,
also the coincidence spectra of both detectors are stored.
3. Results 4

2500
511 keV
Detector 1
2000 Gaussian Fit

1500

Counts
FWHM
1000

500

0
0 500 1000 1500
Energy E (keV)
1500
Detector 2
Guassian Fit
1000
Counts

500

0
0 500 1000 1500
Energy E (keV)

Figure 3: Recorded Na-22 γ-ray spectra spectra used to calibrate both detectors.
The β + e− annihilation peak corresponding to 511 keV is clearly visible and in
order to determine the exact peak position and FWHM a Gaussian is fitted to
the the data.

3 Results
In this section, the results of the performed measurements will be discussed. The results
obtained in different setup configurations will be treated separately.

Energy Calibration.—To calibrate both scintillators, a radioactive Na-22 γ-ray source is used.
From the obtained energy spectrum, the channels are calibrated using the characteristic
β + e− → 2γ annihilation peak (at 511 keV) and the photopeak corresponding to the 2+ → 0+
transition in Ne-22 (at 1274.5 keV, see Fig. 1). In Fig. 3 the recorded Na-22 γ-ray spectra
are shown for both detectors. To determine the peak centroid and FWHM of the 511 keV
annihilation peak a gaussian is fitted to the data (red). Unfortunately, energy-calibration of
the system using the annihilation peak at 511 keV yields an offset in the observed location
of the photopeak compared to the expected position. Calibrating the spectrum according to
the annihilation peak, the photopeak is located at 1100 keV, instead of the expected location
corresponding to 1274.5 keV. This discrepancy indicates a systematic deviation in the setup,
we will discuss this issue in section 4. The standard deviation of the annihilation peaks for
detector 1 and 2, denoted as σ1,2 , are found to be σ1 = 52.8 and σ2 = 62.3 keV.
5

2000
596 keV

1500 307 keV


290 keV
Counts

1000

395 keV
202 keV

500 88 keV

Q = 1182 keV

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Energy (keV)

Figure 4: Intrinsic background of the LYSO crystal in detector 1 due to the pres-
ence of radioactive Lu-176. The energies corresponding to the nuclear transitions
in Hf-176 are shown as well and explained in detail in the main text. As expected,
the spectrum ends at the Q-value (1182 keV) for β-decay in Lu-176.

Intrinsic Lu-176 Background.—The intrinsic spectrum of the LYSO crystal in detector 1 (i.e.
in the absence of an external source) is recorded and shown in Fig. 4. In the spectrum, the
nuclear transitions in Hf-176 are clearly visible and indicated using the energy corresponding
to the transitions. The labels at 88, 202 and 307 keV correspond to the 2+ → 0+ , 4+ → 2+
and 6+ → 4+ transitions, respectively (see Fig. 1 as well). The labels at higher energies
represent the sum of two individual transitions, e.g. the label at 290 keV corresponds to a
simultaneous detection of photons from the 2+ → 0+ and 4+ → 2+ transitions. Note that all
expected nuclear transitions in Hf-176 are present in the spectrum – including the 6+ excited
state generated during β + emission by Lu-176 nuclei and the final 0+ ground state. Lastly,
as expected, the spectrum ends at the Q-value (1182 keV) for β − emission by Lu-176 nuclei.

Coincidence Spectrum of the Intrinsic Lu-176 Background.—In addition to the full intrinsic
background spectra, also the coincidence spectra for detector 1 and 2 are recorded. These
spectra are shown in the upper and middle panel of Fig. 5, the lower panel shows the
distribution of the time difference between two coincidence counts. From the figure, it can be
concluded that the distribution is well described by a gaussian with approximately zero mean
(as expected, since in the ideal case the time difference between two counts in coincidence is
zero). In the two upper panels, it is clearly visible that the peak structure due to the nuclear
transitions in Hf-176 is superimposed on the continuous spectrum due to β − emission by
Lu-176. In particular, the peaks corresponding to the 6+ → 4+ and 4+ → 2+ transitions
in Hf-176 are clearly visible and Guassians are fitted to those peaks to determine the peak
centroid and standard deviations.
For detector 1, the peak centroids are found to be at 211 and 315 keV, which are within
4.5% respectively 2.2% from the values 202 and 307 keV listed in literature (see Fig. 1).
The standard deviations for the two peaks, labelled according to the corresponding nuclear
transitions, are found to be σ6+ → 4+ = 42.1 and σ4+ → 2+ = 53.7 keV. For the second detector,
3. Results 6

150 315 keV


Detector 1
211 keV
Coincidence Counts

100

50

0
0 500 1000
Energy E (keV)
120
Detector 2
100
Coincidence Counts

80

60

40

20

0
0 500 1000
Energy E (keV)

600
Coincidence Counts

400

200

0
−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
Time Difference (ns)

Figure 5: Results from unsourced coincidence measurements. Upper panel: co-


incidence spectrum for detector 1. Middle panel: coincidence spectrum for detec-
tor 2. Lower panel: distribution of the time difference between two coincidence
counts.
7

Counts (Background subtracted)


100

50

0
0 100 200 300 400 500
Energy E (keV)

Figure 6: Result of the coincidence spectrum of detector 1 without background


(Sc−b ).

the fitted peak centroids are 200 and 302 keV, which correspond to deviations of 1% and 2%,
respectively. The standard deviations are σ6+ → 4+ = 45.6 and σ4+ → 2+ = 46.7 keV.
In addition, it should be commented that a peak structure is also present around 88 keV
(corresponding to the 2+ → 0+ transition), however due to the low number of counts in this
regime and the close vicinity of the lower energy boundary of the considered energy range,
no gaussians could be fitted to those peaks.
Lastly, note that in the spectra of Fig. 5 the background is still included. To filter out the
background, a rescaled version of the non-coincidence spectrum Sb (see Fig. 4) is substracted
from the coincidence spectrum Sc to obtain a coincidence spectrum Sc−b without background.
This is done using Fig. 4 as background spectrum and the coincidence spectrum of detector
1 (upper panel of Fig. 5). Each bin i of the spectrum Sc−b i is computed from the bins of Sci
and Sbi as follows:
i Nc i
Sc−b = Sci − S, (6)
2Nb b
where Nb,c denote the total number of counts in the spectra Sb and Sc , respectively. The fac-
tor of two is included in the rescaling factor since half of the counts in coincidence spectrum
corresponds to background. The result is shown in Fig. 6.

Energy Resolution at Various Energies.—Using the results presented above for the standard
deviations of the recorded peaks, the energy resolution R(E) of for both detectors can be
determined. In particular, the energy resolution is obtained for the energies 511 (annihilation
peak), 202 (4+ → 2+ transition) and 307 keV (6+ → 4+ transition). It should be mentioned
that in the recorded spectra the peaks corresponding to the 6+ → 4+ and 4+ → 2+ transitions
are not present exactly at the expected energies of 202 and 307 keV, respectively. However,
in determining the energy resolution, we will assume the peak centroids are located at the
expected position rather than the slightly deviating locations found from the actual spectra.
Using the relationship between the energy resolution R(E), standard deviation σ and peak
centroid hEi (Eq. 3), the energy resolution is determined and the results are tabulated in
Tab. 1. In addition, the energy resolution is plotted as function of the energy in Fig. 7.

Coincidence Spectrum Na-22 Source.—The Na-22 γ-ray source is not only used for calibra-
3. Results 8

Table 1: Found energy resolution at different energies for both LYSO scintillator
detectors.

Decay or Transition Detector 1 Detector 2


hEi (keV) σ (keV) R(%) σ (keV) R(%)
β + + e− → 2γ 511 52.9 24 62.3 28
Hf-176: 6+ → 4+ 307 42.1 32 45.6 34
Hf-176: 4+ → 2+ 202 53.7 62 46.7 54

70
Detector 1
Energy Resolution R (%)

60 Detector 2

50

40

30

20
200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
Energy E (keV)

Figure 7: Obtained energy resolution R(E) as function of the energy E for both
detectors.

tion, but also in a coincidence setup, where the source is placed in between the two scintilla-
tors. The results for the coincidence spectrum are plotted in Fig. 8. A peak is observed at
(E1 , E2 ) = (511 keV, 511 keV), resulting from the annihilation reaction β + + e− → 2γ in the
Na-22 source in which two 511 keV photons are produced. If these two photons are emitted
along the alignment axis of the two detectors and Na-22 source, two counts in coincidence
will be recorded by the setup.

Spectrum Na-22 Source with Lead Shielding.—Lastly, the coincidence spectrum for the Na-22
source is recorded in the presence of a lead shielding block between both detectors. The
setup is now as follows: the two detectors and a lead shielding block are placed in alignment.
Just above the shielding block the Na-22 source is placed. In a β + e− annihilation reaction
in the Na-22 source, the two photons will be emitted in opposite directions (by conservation
of momentum). Hence, if one of the photons is recorded by (say) detector one, the other
photon will certainly not be measured by detector two. Therefore, in a coincidence setup,
the only coincidence counts that can be recorded are (a) accidental coincidence of two 511
keV photons originating from two different annihilation events in the Na-22 source or (b)
coincidence of a 511 keV photon and photons from the intrinsic Lu-176 background of the
LYSO detector. These features are indeed present in the coincidence contour plot shown in
Fig. 9. The spots present at (E1 , E2 ) ' (511, 800) and (800, 511) result from the accidental
coincidence of a 511 keV photon in one detectors and the sum of a 511 keV photon and a
307 keV photon (from Hf-176 6+ → 4+ transition) in the other detector. The same reasoning
applies to the spots around (511, 307) and (307, 511), but then for the coincidence of a 511
9

700

600

500

Energy E2 (keV)
400

300

0
200 100
200
300
400
500
100
600
700

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

Energy E1 (keV)


Figure 8: Results from the coincidence setup with a Na-22 source placed between
the two scintillators. Left panel: three dimensional plot of the coincidence counts
with energy E1,2 . Right panel: a contour plot of the same variables where color
coding shows the number of coincidence counts at a given combination (E1 , E2 ).

1000

800

600
Energy E2 (keV)

400

0
200 2
4
6
8
10

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000

Energy E1 (keV)

Figure 9: Resulting contour plot for the coincidence setup with a Na-22 source
and a lead shielding plot. The color mapping indicates the number of coincidence
counts for a given combination of (E1 , E2 ).

keV photon and (solely) a 307 keV photon resulting from a Hf-176 6+ → 4+ transition. These
spots all correspond to case (a) introduced above. Finally, the small spot around (511, 511)
originates simply from the accidental coincidence of two 511 keV photons (corresponding to
scenario (b) as discussed above).
4. Conclusion and Discussion 10

4 Conclusion and Discussion


In this paper, the intrinsic backgrounds of two LYSO crystal scintillators due to the naturally
present radioactive Lu-176 nuclei are recorded. The expected nuclear transitions due to the
decay of Lu-176 into Hf-176 by means of β − emission are indeed manifest in the obtained
spectra. In addition, the Na-22 spectrum is recorded by both detectors and using the β + e−
annihilation peak the energy resolution at 511 keV is determined to be 24% and 28% for
detector 1 and 2, respectively.
Although the obtained results agree to reasonable extent with the expectations based
on literature, the following improvements and extensions to the performed experiment could
be made. First of all, there exists a small discrepancy between the position of the Na-22
annihilation peak and the photopeak. To be more specific, when calibrating the energy scale
according to the annihilation peak at 511 keV, the photopeak appear around 1100 keV,
whereas it should be located at 1274 keV. This discrepancy is caused by the fact that the
light response of the system is not linear at high energies (corresponding to high intensity).
Stated differently, for the low intensity I regime (referred to as the dynamic range), the
pulse amplitude A increases linearly. However, in the high I regime (corresponding to high
energies) this linear behavior between I and A breaks down and the A(I) curve saturates to
a constant value, inducing a systematic offset at high energies.
In a future repetition of the experiments, a key goal should be to increase the dynamic
range of the system, so that the photopeak also appears at the right location. Furthermore,
the counting statistics for some of the performed experiments should be increased, which
could easily be done by increasing the recording time of the spectra. Lastly, to determine the
energy resolution at different energies as well, other radioactive sources such as Co-60 and
Cs-137 could be used in addition to the Na-22 source.

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