Energy and resolution calibration of NaI(Tl) and LaBr3(Ce) scintillators and validation of an EGS5 Monte Carlo user code for efficiency calculations

The radiation detectors yield the optimal performance if they are accurately calibrated. This paper presents the energy, resolution and efficiency calibrations for two scintillation detectors, NaI(Tl) and LaBr3(Ce). For the two former calibrations, several fitting functions were tested. To perform the efficiency calculations, a Monte Carlo user code for the EGS5 code system was developed with several important implementations. The correct performance of the simulations was validated by comparing the simulated spectra with the experimental spectra and reproducing a number of efficiency and activity calculations.

► NaI(Tl) and LaBr3(Ce) scintillation detectors are used for gamma-ray spectrometry.
► Energy, resolution and efficiency calibrations are discussed for both detectors.
► For the two former calibrations, several fitting functions are tested.
► A Monte Carlo user code for EGS5 was developed for the efficiency calculations.
► The code was validated reproducing some efficiency and activity calculations.