Photon Activation Analysis at the Idaho Accelerator Center

Activation methods require minimal sample preparation and provide sufficiently high sensitivity for detecting the vast majority of the elements throughout the periodic table. In this paper we shall discuss photon activation analysis (PAA) at the Idaho Accelerator Center. The process of PAA begins with exposing a sample with photons in the energy range of 10 to 30 MeV. Many nuclides in the sample will become activated and, in turn, these radionuclides will decay by emitting characteristic radiation. These characteristic radiation decays are the telltale signatures for identifying elements which can then be measured with spectrometers such as a high-purity Germanium detector. PAA is not an 'absolute' method, as the samples under investigation must be irradiated along with a reference or calibrating material having a well-known elemental composition. The quantitative evaluation is performed through comparing the two resulting element spectra from the unknown sample and reference material. Besides the obvious advantage of being non-destructive, PAA has minimal contamination issues. Moreover, materials that are difficult to treat chemically, such as certain refractory metals, dusts, ashes, etc., offer no hindrance to the technique of PAA. A further advantage is that PAA is very well suited for investigated minute samples (sub-milligram dust particles) to very large ones (in the multi-kg range). PAA is a robust technique as there are no real limitations concerning the nature of material to be studied.