Energy resolution of Compton electrons in LaCl3:Ce using compact digitizer

Cerium doped Lanthanum halide scintillators are useful in γ-ray spectroscopy due to their excellent energy resolution and high stopping power. The response of Compton electrons in 1″ × 1″ cylindrical LaCl3:Ce scintillator was recorded using a PIXIE-4 digital data acquisition system having no requirement of any external pulse-processing unit and coincidence unit, which makes the whole measurement setup very compact. The intrinsic energy resolution of Compton electrons in LaCl3:Ce was measured employing the Wide Angle Compton Coincidence Technique (WACCT) for energies ranging from 100 keV to 1 MeV by using 137Cs, 60Co and 22Na γ-ray sources. The effect of coincidence energy gating window was also studied. A good agreement between the present results obtained using a digital method and the results reported in the literature with the analogue method has been observed.