Instrumentation for gamma‐ray spectroscopy

JUL 01, 1966

Ge(Li) detectors and analog‐to‐digital converters are teaming up with computer hardware and software to collect, store and analyze gamma‐ray spectra. Running an experiment for a few days now gives more spectral information than one used to get in a few months.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3048395

Terence J. Kennett

DURING the past decade and a half gamma‐ray spectroscopy has increased by orders of magnitude in its ability to reveal information. At present the high resolution of lithium‐activated germanium detectors justifies 4000‐channel analysis, and computer programs speed interpretation. The result is a system that does in days what used to take months even with fairly sophisticated computers. Today’s methods are a considerable advance over methods that started with the introduction of thallium‐activated sodium‐iodide crystals and 256‐channel analyzers, just as those, in their turn, were a great advance over devices that preceded them.

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More about the authors

Terence J. Kennett, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.