Question

Provide a schematic diagram of the main parts of a nuclear spectroscopy set up and describe their functions. What are characteristics of the Si detectors which mostly affect the energy resolution of the spectroscopy set up?

Answer 1

Ans: It is the extension of the scintillation counter and it identified the source element. this is possible as spectra of gamma rays from potassium thorium and uranium contains peaks which represent stages in the decay series, higher frequency of gamma radiation are higher its contain energy to express the spectrum in terms of energy levels are discriminating between different source. these device are sometimes termed pulse height analysers as the intensity of the scintillation pulse is approximately propotional to the original gamma ray energy.

Main parts are Photomultiplier tube, Scintillation crystal, Anode, Cathode, electronic counter and radiation source.

Silicon Photomultipliers are solid state based low level light detectors due to their distinguished properties, very high quantum efficiency compared to PMTs (Photomultiplier tubes).

Relation  is given by

Energy resolution (Re) = FWHM / E (%)

where

FWHM is Peak full width at half of the maximum height

E is the related energy of the peak