LaCl3 crystal has UCl3 type structure, space group P63/m, and it has attracted much attention for its high light output as well as good energy resolution. These unique properties made LaCl3 crystal a promising material as scintillator in the field of high-energy physics experiments and medical imaging, as well.

LaCl3 crystal belongs to hexagonal system, density is 3.8g/cm3. Its energy resolution is 3.1%, decay time With 26 ns and a time resolution of 224 ps, there is almost no damage after exposure to gamma rays up to 3 kGy. Such excellent scintillation performance is very rare in inorganic compounds. The energy is 60 keV to 1275 keV. Under the excitation of γ-ray source, the nonlinear response coefficient of light output is 7%, which is far superior to LSO:Ce crystal (35%), NaI: Tl crystal (15%) and CsI: Tl (20%). Compared with the commercially available scintillation crystal, it not only has high light output, fast decay time, good energy resolution and time resolution, but also has very low nonlinear energy response, so it is expected to be applied to Nuclear Medicine Imaging for Low Dose Radiation Detection-SPECT, safety inspection, geological exploration, environmental testing, nuclear diffusion inspection, etc.