Semiconductor telescope spectrometer for β ray spectra

A semiconductor telescope spectrometer for β ray spectra and the associated program for analysis of δ spectra have been built and tested. The spectrometer consists of a ΔE detector (0.3 mm x 200 mm2 Si (Au)) and an E detector (15 mm x 500 mm2 Hp Ge). Its energy resolution for single energy electrons is 20 keV. Multibranch β spectra can conveniently be analyzed, and then their endpoint energies and branching ratios can be obtained by means of the program, in which the response function of the telescope has been taken into account. The endpoint energies and branching ratios for three well known β emitters, i. e. 152Eu, 90Y and 56Mn, have been extracted experimentally, which are in good agreement with published results. Since the HP Ge detector is rather thin, it can also be used as a low energy γ ray detector