Instrument Development and Gamma Spectroscopy With Strontium Iodide

Author

Cherepy, Nerine J. ; Payne, Stephen A. ; Sturm, B.W. ; Drury, O.B. ; O´Neal, S.P. ; Thelin, P.A. ; Shah, K.S. ; Hawrami, R. ; Momayezi, M. ; Hurst, B. ; Burger, A. ; Wiggins, B. ; Bhattacharya, Pallab ; Boatner, L.A. ; Ramey, J.O.

Author_Institution

Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab., Livermore, CA, USA

Volume

60

Issue

2

fYear

2013

fDate

Apr-13

Firstpage

955

Lastpage

958

Abstract

Development of the Europium-doped Strontium Iodide scintillator, SrI₂(Eu), involves advances in crystal growth, optics and readout methodology for prototype detectors. We have demonstrated energy resolution of 3% at 662 keV for a 26 cm³ SrI₂(Eu) crystal, which is equivalent to the performance obtained with Cerium-doped Lanthanum Bromide of equivalent size. Compared to standard analog readout, use of a digital readout method allows improved energy resolution to be obtained with large volume SrI₂(Eu) crystals. Comparative gamma spectra acquired with LaBr₃(Ce) and NaI(Tl) quantitatively depict the value of the high resolution of SrI₂(Eu) in discriminating closely spaced gamma lines for radioisotope identification applications.

Keywords

crystal growth; gamma-ray spectra; gamma-ray spectroscopy; nuclear electronics; radioisotopes; readout electronics; solid scintillation detectors; LaBr₃(Ce); NaI(Tl); SrI₂(Eu) crystal; cerium-doped lanthanum bromide; crystal growth; digital readout method; energy resolution; equivalent size; europium-doped strontium iodide scintillator; gamma lines; gamma spectra; gamma spectroscopy; instrument development; large volume SrI₂(Eu) crystals; radioisotope identification applications; readout methodology; standard analog readout; Absorption; Crystals; Detectors; Energy resolution; Laboratories; Spectroscopy; Strontium; Gamma-ray spectroscopy; scintillators; strontium iodide;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2012.2227796

Filename

6407476