Lead tungstate (PbWO4) scintillators for LHC EM calorimetry

This report describes the work carried out in order to analyse the properties of PbWO4 crystals as scintillators and to determine the perspectives of their use in calorimetry in Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. The scintillation mechanism in PWO crystals is explained and the properties connected with their use as scintillators are analysed both for undoped and Nb doped crystals. The specific problems concerning the physical parameters in the case of large scale production of PWO scintillators are discussed.