Beta-particle spectroscopy with active gamma-ray discrimination

A spectrometer was developed which was capable of measuring a beta-particle energy distribution while simultaneously (actively) rejecting the system's response to gamma rays. A two detector configuration was used, where the first detector was a thin, pancake type, gas-flow counter, positioned in front of the entrance window to a BC-400 plastic scintillator. The gas-flow counter was designed to be insensitive to gamma rays so that it could act as a sensor which would gate the spectrometer to accept only those pulses induced by beta-particle interactions in the scintillator. The gamma-ray rejection capability of the spectrometer was a linear function of gamma-ray energy. Various spectrometer design and response considerations were investigated to determine their effect on either the spectrometer's discrimination capabilities or on its ability to accurately measure the incident beta-particle energy distribution. The spectrometer was used to measure the energy distribution of the photoelectric and Compton recoil electrons which are produced by gamma ray interaction in thin metal foils. In addition, the energy distributions of each component of a radiation field consisting of beta particles and gamma rays were measured for several radiation sources