Limits and performances of a BaWO4 single crystal

A Barium Tungstate single crystal (BaWO4) was produced using the low thermal gradient Czochralski technique. In this paper the results concerning its light emission and radioactive contaminants are presented. The aim of this work is to investigate the possibility to realize BaWO4 crystals with suitably features to study the double beta decay of  130Ba and  132Ba isotopes by the “source=detector” approach. The results show the limitations of a BaWO4 crystal as a scintillator and give some idea on how to overcome them in order to take profit from the potentiality of this single crystal.