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Diptanil GammaRaySpectros
Diptanil GammaRaySpectros
Diptanil GammaRaySpectros
Diptanil Roy1
1
This report describes the experimental procedure we used to understand the working of the NaI
detector. A Thallium activated NaI crystal scintillation detector was used to measure and calibrate
the Co60 spectrum. From there, the energy of the peaks of another source (Cs137 ) was found
out from its respective spectrum. Further, the efficiency of the detector the complete spectra of
the two sources Co60 and Cs137 was measured.The relation between the % resolution and E1/2
was plotted.The complete spectra of Co60 and Cs137 was recorded highlighting the various spectral
regions.The activity of Cs137 was calculated from subsequent measurements both theoretically and
via the spectrometer.All the spectral graphs and the corresponding data were obtained by using
Win-DASTM software.
I. INTRODUCTION
Detecting X-rays and gamma-rays is not a direct process. X-ray and gamma-ray photons do not have an intrinsic charge and therefore do not create ionization or
excitation of the medium it is passing through directly.
Thus, the measurement of these photons is dependent on
their interaction with the electrons of the medium. The
incident photons will create fast electrons which we look
at to understand the nature the of photon itself. These
electrons will have a maximum energy that is equal to
the energy of the incident gamma-ray on that electron.
There are three manners in which the photon will interact with the medium that it is in,that is of concern for
gamma-ray spectroscopy. In a typical gamma ray spectra, one can find single(multiple) photopeaks corresponding to photoelectric absorption, Compton scattering, and
pair production. To characterize an unknown substance,
the photopeaks are considered important.
Because of the fact that the photons themselves are
invisible to the detector, a detector needs to have a
2
and loses this energy by exciting and ionizing more
crystal atoms.
2. Compton Effect
(a) Compton Scattering: Compton scattering is
a purely kinematic scattering of an incident
gamma photon of energy E with an electron
(mass m) in the crystal that is either free or
loosely bound (Ee 0, pe 0). Using conservation of energy and momentum, it can be
shown that when the gamma photon is scattered through an angle , its nal energy E0 is
reduced to
E0 =
E
1 + (E /mc2 )(1 cos )
(1)
(b) Back Scattering:The small peak at low voltage (called the backscatter peak) arises when
gamma photons rst strike the lead shield and
then Compton scatter back into the detector. The scattered photons, which are greatly
reduced in energy, produce the backscatter
peak. The Compton plateauthe relatively
at region extending from the Compton edge
to lower energies occurs when gamma rays
Compton scatter in the scintillator. The recoiling electrons energy is deposited in the
crystal while the scattered photon exits the
crystal undetected. The recoil energy varies
from a maximum at the Compton edge when
the photon backscatters, to zero when the
photon is scattered in the forward direction.
enough energy, it annihilates with an electron producing two 0.511 MeV gammas. The creation, energy loss, and annihilation eectively occur instantaneously. If both annihilation gammas are absorbed, the total energy absorbed will be the original gamma energy and the event would contribute
to the photopeak. However, sometimes either or
both of the annihilation gammas will escape from
the crystal producing small peaks (called single or
double escape peaks) 0.511 MeV or 1.022 MeV below the photopeak. The conservation of energy
yields:
h = m0 c2 + E+ + E + Enuclear
(2)
3
Ideally, the cross-section area of a detector should be
large enough so that all the gamma ray interactions can
be recorded in it. However, gamma-rays often carry a lot
of energy and building a detector large enough to stop all
of them from escaping isnt always practical and sometimes just isnt feasible. So we do not get well-defined
sharp peaks as is expected theoretically. The gamma ray
interaction in a real life detector is as shown in Figure 5
A background spectra was taken before the use of radioactive sources Figure 7.
The background radiation was subsequently subtracted
from the spectra of radio active samples. Reference spectra was taken to be Co60 spectra. The complete spectra
(minus the background) (Counts vs Channel) is shown in
Figure 8.
%Resolution =
FWHM
x 100.
Energy at peak value
(3)
5
where N(p) is the count under the photopeak and N(t)
is the total count in the spectrum.
Ratio
0.54418
0.09362
0.07524
Ep %
54.418
9.362
7.524
c. Calculation of Actvivity
(5)
b. Photopeak efficiency
N (p)
N (t)
N0 (Ci)
0.25
1
Time(days)
2459
2377
(years)
30.18
5.27
N(Ci)
0.214
0.412
N0 =
N
W Ep t
(6)
6
where
1
d
1
2p
D
D = r 2 + d2
W =
(7)
(8)
W(cm)
0.052786
0.052786
0.052786
N
150730
92659
74461
(Ep )
0.54418
0.09362
0.07524
N0 (Bq)
5830.268
20832.17
20832.17
N0 (Ci)
0.157
0.563
0.563
Even though most of the data was taken by the machine , yet there is still scope of systematic error.
1. Statistical errors: Statistical counting errors in
gamma-ray spectroscopy follow a poisson distribution. This particular distribution has a property
that standard deviation is equal to square root of
the mean root count.
= n
(9)
Thus for Co60 whose total count is 989690 in 900s,
then the error in counts/s is:
n=33 counts/s.
for Cs137 whose total count is 276983 in 900s, then
the error in counts/s is:
n=18 counts/s.
2. Distortion in the pulse train due to Pile-up:
Relatively long pulse decay times are used in the
initial stages of the hardware to reduce distortions
due to electronic noise. At high counting rates
there is then a possibility that a second event in
the detector might occur before the pulse from the
previous event has decayed. The second pulse will
ride on the tail of the first one.
This effect is known as pulse pile-up, and will result in a measured pulse height value for the second
pulse that is higher than the true value. The end
result of pile-up in the pulse train is that some of
4. Limit of resolution: Since the detector cannot capture gamma rays of all the energies, the
peaks are not sharp but have some broadening due
to stray radiations.This is the limit of resolution.
Smaller is the value, sharper is the peak and better
the resolution. Better is the resolution, the specctra will be affected less by fluctuations in the environment (voltage, radiation etc.) From previous
calculation, the % Resolution for the various energy
peaks was found to be:
Co60 :
1.177 MeV: 5.85 %
1.334 MeV: 5.52 %
Cs137
0.662 MeV: 8.816 %
5. Background Noise: Background noise can also
contribute to the counts.However, in this experiment we have reduced background effect by subtracting the background noise from the spectra of
the source.
V. RESULTS
7
2. The relation between resolution(%) and energy was
found to be:
1
R = 9.268E 2 2.509
(10)
3. Because of lower gamma ray energy, Cs-137 is better detected through this process as compared to
Co-60. This is reflected in the lower value of resolution and higher value of efficiency of NaI crystal
at Cs-137s photopeak energy.
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