Neutron damage in mechanically-cooled high-purity germanium detectors for field-portable Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation analysis (PGNAA) systems

Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation (PGNAA) systems require the use of a gamma-ray spectrometer to record the gamma-ray spectrum of an object under test and allow the determination of the object´s composition. Field-portable systems, such as Idaho National Laboratory´s PINS system, have used standard liquid-nitrogen-cooled high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors to perform this function. These detectors have performed very well in the past, but the requirement of liquid-nitrogen cooling limits their use to areas where liquid nitrogen is readily available or produced on-site. Also, having a relatively large volume of liquid nitrogen close to the detector can impact some assessments, possibly leading to a false detection of explosives or other nitrogen-containing chemical. Use of a mechanically-cooled HPGe detector is therefore very attractive for PGNAA applications where nitrogen detection is critical or where liquid-nitrogen logistics are problematic. Mechanically-cooled HPGe detectors constructed from p-type germanium, such as ORTEC´s TransSpec, have been commercially available for several years. In order to assess whether these detectors would be suitable for use in a fielded PGNAA system, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been performing a number of tests of the resistance of mechanically-cooled HPGe detectors to neutron damage. These detectors have been standard commercially-available p-type HPGe detectors as well as prototype n-type HPGe detectors. These tests compare the performance of these different detector types as a function of crystal temperature and incident neutron fluence on the crystal.