Determination of parameters relevant to alpha spectrometry when employing source coating

The recoil fragments from an alpha-emitting source may cause significant detector contamination. The simplest method to avoid the problem is to use a source coating. The influence of Mylar film coatings of different thickness on the resolution, efficiency and minimum detection level of an alpha spectrometry system was investigated. No significant deterioration of the system characteristics was observed when using thin films of about 0.25 mg/cm2.