A study of high-energy proton induced damage in cerium fluoride in comparison with measurements in lead tungstate calorimeter crystals

Abstract A CeF 3 crystal produced during early R&D studies for calorimetry at the CERN Large Hadron Collider was exposed to a 24 GeV/ c proton fluence Φ p = ( 2.78 ± 0.20 ) × 10 13 cm − 2 and, after one year of measurements tracking its recovery, to a fluence Φ p = ( 2.12 ± 0.15 ) × 10 14 cm − 2 . Results on proton-induced damage in the crystal and its spontaneous recovery after both irradiations are presented here, along with some new, complementary data on proton-damage in lead tungstate. A comparison with FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation results is performed and a qualitative understanding of high-energy damage mechanism is attempted.