Gamma- and X-ray spectrometry with semiconductor detectors

This book covers the topics essential to γ- and X-ray spectrometry as it is now practiced with semiconductor detectors in the energy range from 5KeV to 3 MeV. This includes useful physical and mathematical background information, the components of a standard photon spectrometer, spectrum analysis procedures, the energy and efficiency calibration, energy and emission-rate measurement and some application examples. The first chapter is devoted to the historical development of photon spectrometry, to the physical phenomena related to photon production, to the interaction of photons with matter and to mathematical procedures that are useful in the analysis of data. In the second chapter the authors describe the components of a standard photon spectrometer, including the properties of detectors, the electronics, sources and the measuring geometry. The main emphasis of the monograph is on the material in chapters 3 and 4 which describes the techniques used to make high quality measurements and the methods for the analysis of the resulting spectra. These topics include peak evaluation, energy and efficiency calibration, and the corrections that have to be applied in order to get reliable results for photon energies and emission rates. Chapter 5 gives examples of the application of the methods of chapters 3 and 4 and describes other, specialized methods including automated analysis for determining the activities of radionuclides present in a source. In the final chapter tables of data that are useful for photon spectrometry, namely, mass attenuation coefficients for many important materials; atomic data including K-X-ray energies and relative intensities, K-shell fluorescence yields, and the natural widths of some atomic levels and K-X-ray lines are provided. A compilation of radionuclide decay data for nuclides that may be of use is also included