The radiation induced color centers of the LaBr3:Ce crystal

•LaBr3:Ce crystals have been subjected to consecutive gamma irradiations.•Radiation damage and further recovery has been studied.•Three types of color centers have been suggested as responsible for the damage.

This paper presents study of the gamma-rays induced radiation damage in the LaBr3:Ce crystal. The light output and transmittance are measured before and after γ-rays irradiations with an integrated dose up to 106 rad for two LaBr3:Ce samples. After γ-rays irradiation, LaBr3:Ce crystal shows very slow recovery process or has no recover under room temperature, indicating that the radiation damage in LaBr3:Ce crystal is not dose date dependent. Meanwhile, it's found that the radiation induced color centers are respectively peaked at the wavelength of 448 nm, 512 nm and 590 nm. Those color centers should be ascribed to the Vk, VF and F center respectively.