Search for scintillation in doped lead fluoride crystals

An effort has been made to introduce scintillation light in lead fluoride crystals by selective doping. It was found that some rare earth ions doped in the crystal may serve as luminescence centers. The photo- and X- luminescence spectrum, the decay time constant and the light output of these doped samples are presented. Because of the slow decay time these doped lead fluoride samples fall short to be used to build a homogeneous hadronic calorimeter with dual readout for future high energy physics experiments. Researches will continue to introduce scintillation in lead fluoride.