Scintillators for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

From 1990 to 1994, Crystal Clear made an intensive investigation within the quest for the most adequate and ideal scintillator for LHC. Three main candidates were identified and extensively studied: CeF3, PbWO4 (PWO) and heavy scintillating glasses. PWO was chosen by CMS and ALICE as the most cost effective crystal compliant with the LHC constraints. Today 76648 PWO crystals are installed in CMS and 17920 in ALICE.

Relevant publications:

E. Auffray et al."Extensive studies on CeF3 crystals, a good candidate for electromagnetic calorimetry at future accelerators", Nucl. Instrum. and Methods in Phys. Res. A, Vol. 383, Is. 2–3, (1996), 367-390, ISSN 0168-9002, 10.1016/S0168-9002(96)00806-6. [CERN-PPE-96-064]

E. Auffray et al."Cerium doped heavy metal fluoride glasses, a possible alternative for electromagnetic calorimetry", Nucl. Instrum. and Methods in Phys. Res. A, Vol. 380, Is. 3, (1996), 524-536, ISSN 0168-9002, 10.1016/0168-9002(96)00717-6.[CERN-PPE-96-035, CMS note 1996-107].

P. Lecoq et al."Lead tungstate (PbWO4) scintillators for LHC EM calorimetry", Nucl. Instrum. and Methods in Phys. Res., Vol. 365, Is. 2–3, (1995), 291-298, ISSN 0168-9002, 10.1016/0168-9002(95)00589-7. [CERN/PPE/94-225, CMS TN/94-308]