A Decade of Lanthanum Bromide (LaBr3:Ce) Detectors

Much of the progress in low and medium energy nuclear physics has been
intertwined with inorganic scintillator detectors. Notable among them are
the NaI(Tl), BaF2, CsI(Na), BGO etc.  All of these detectors have their
own strengths and deficiencies in terms of detection efficiency, energy
and timing resolutions, stability and ease of production. The long desire
of gamma-ray spectroscopists to have a scintillator with all the good
qualities, coupled with the sustained efforts of crystal growers, have
resulted in the emergence of the Lanthanum Halide detectors, namely,
LaBr3:Ce and LaCl3:Ce. The highly attractive properties of the Lanthanum
Halide detectors, vis-a-vis, other existing scintillators, have generated
much activity and expectation. In this talk I shall review the present
global status of research with Lanthanum Bromide detectors and our own
activities in this field of research. Primarily, it is going to be
storytelling, the story of a beautiful scintillator, efforts to tame it
to adapt to different experimental requirements, and occasional ecstasies
having achieved that.