Larger volumes of HgI2 used as portable gamma-ray counters

Mercuric iodide detectors up to 1.5 cm in thickness and with active areas of up to 17 cm2 were fabricated and used as room-temperature, portable, gamma-ray counters. Most of the detectors show no photopeak spectral resolution, but the end point energies of various gamma radiation sources are linear with energy. The detectors are biased with about 103 V/cm, which can be provided in a portable package with a rechargeable capacitor. The nuclear performance of these counters is described. (orig.)