Single crystal HPGe (80%) versus BGO shielded CLOVER detector for high precision decay rate measurements. A comparative study

In this study, various detector configurations have been investigated in order to explore the optimal condition for decay rate measurements of radioactive samples using gamma spectroscopy technique. A limitation of detecting low energy gamma rays from decaying radioactive nuclei, is the Compton background which can be significantly reduced by rejecting Compton scattered events through active Bismuth germanate (BGO) shielding. On the other hand, for a CLOVER detector without BGO shielding, one can place the radioactive samples very close to the detector for enhancing geometrical efficiency. A single crystal High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector can also be used for decay rate measurements. In order to measure the decay rate of nuclei decaying via gamma emission with reasonable intensity, optimal close geometry options have been investigated for various HPGe detector configurations. (author)