Light Yield, Non-Proportionality, and Emission Characteristics of Scintillator Materials for Silicon Photomultiplier–Based Radiation Detectors

A scintillation detector read out by a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is limited primarily by three properties of the scintillator: the number of optical photons generated per unit of absorbed energy (light yield), the constancy of that yield with the energy of the exciting radiation (proportionality), and the wavelength distribution of the emitted light relative to the spectral response of the sensor. This review compiles and cross-checks reported light yields, emission maxima, decay times and densities for the inorganic crystals and polyvinyltoluene plastics most often coupled to SiPMs — NaI(Tl), CsI(Tl), CsI(Na), BGO, LYSO(Ce), GSO(Ce), GAGG(Ce), LaBr₃(Ce), LaCl₃(Ce) and EJ-200 — and states the governing relations for intrinsic yield, energy-resolution decomposition, spectral overlap, microcell saturation and ionization quenching in one consistent notation. Two points distinguish it from material-only surveys. Most tabulated resolutions were obtained with photomultiplier or avalanche-photodiode readout and are systematically better than those achieved with SiPMs, so the comparative tables here keep the two readout classes separate. And the finite microcell count of a SiPM produces a compressive non-linearity that can be mistaken for intrinsic non-proportionality, so the two must be separated experimentally before a material is judged. A worked decomposition of the 662 keV resolution shows that non-proportionality, not photon statistics, dominates in the alkali halides, whereas LaBr₃(Ce) operates close to its statistical limit. The review closes with the selection trade-offs for compact SiPM-coupled instruments and the reporting gaps that currently prevent scintillator–SiPM combinations from being compared on equal terms.

scintillator; light yield; non-proportionality; emission spectrum; silicon photomultiplier; photon detection efficiency; energy resolution

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