Energy resolution characteristics of high purity germanium detector

The necessary considerations which are taken care for performing accurate measurements of gamma ray attenuation coefficient involves the knowledge of the energy of the photons emitted from the source, the purity of the absorbers, efficiency and energy resolution characteristic of detector as a function of photon energy and sample thickness, and also the effect of geometry on the amount of scattered radiation reaching the detector. In the present investigation the values of percentage resolution and gamma ray attenuation coefficient μ have been obtained and they are found to vary with sample thickness. This dependence is investigated as function of μt for the elements chromium (Z = 24) and lead (Z = 82). The results indicated that the gamma ray attenuation coefficients would improve if one follows the counting sequence together with the criterion μt < 1, where A is the gamma ray attenuation coefficient and t is the thickness of the sample. Here we present investigations at 0.279 MeV for both elements. (author)