Bertin surfaces and residual stress analysis in scintillating crystals

Scintillating crystals are employed in high-energy physics, in medical imaging, diagnostic and security because they are capable to convert gamma-rays and in general high-energy particles into light. The effectiveness of the crystal and the light production can be severely affected by the presence of defects or residual stresses generated by the crystal growth process. Photoelastic analysis is one of the most used investigation techniques for crystal properties characterization: here we present a detailed analysis of the residual stress in PWO which is based on the results obtained elsewhere by the Authors.