Investigation of /sup 90/Sr detection with Cherenkov radiation in silica aerogels

Investigations of possibilities to determine /sup 90/Sr//sup 90/Y in environmental samples with Cherenkov radiation of /spl beta/-particles in silica aerogels are presented. The Cherenkov photon detection is performed with a multianode photomultiplier (Hamamatsu R5900-00-M16). With the signal from a thin wire chamber in coincidence, a background count rate of 2 events per hour has been acheived. Measurements of efficiencies for different /spl beta/-emitters are presented as well as the distributions of the number of detected Cherenkov photons per event. Possibilities for improvement of the sensitivity of the method are indicated.