Study of gamma energy spectrum

using a scintillation counter with

Single Chanel Analyzer (SCA)

Basabendra Roy (14ip001),Siddhartha

patra(14ip022), Maitraya Kanta
Bhattacharyya(14ip002)
Group-c
Sub group-2
January 20, 2015

0.1 Objective :
Study of gamma energy spectrum using a scintillation counter with Single
Channel Analyzer (SCA).
0.2 Apparatus and requirements :
1. A radioactive element , e.g; we use Cs ( ray emitter )
2. For detection one scintillation counter
3. A photo multiplier
4. High voltage source
5. A controller system that controls Photomultiplier voltage, Channel
width, Base point etc.
6. A CRO (optional) to get an idea about the voltage around the peak for
will be.
0.3 Scope of Expt:
i) The PMT voltage (750) and gain (5.0X) was set. The amplifier pulse on
the Oscilloscope was observed.
ii) The window voltage was set so that enough no. of points in the
spectrum and the peak was obtained.
iii) Baseline was varied in convenient steps. The counts as a function of
baseline for a given window was noted.
iv) A plot of the spectrum was taken by using Origin or excel.
v) The resolution of the peak was determined.
vi) Pulse shapes for preamp output, amplifier output and SCA output was sketched.
0.4 Theory :
0.4.1 Interaction of ray with matter :
. Photo-electric Effect:
The photoelectric effect is a phenomenon in which electrons are emitted from
matter (metals and non-metallic solids, liquids or gases) as a consequence of their
absorption of energy from electromagnetic radiation of very short wavelength,
such as visible or ultraviolet light. Emitted electrons are referred as 'photo electrons'. Electrons emitted via this process have almost same kinetic energy
as that of the incident gamma particles since the binding energy of an electron is
of the order of a few electron volts whereas that of the incident gamma radiation
is in kilo-electron volts.
. Compton Effect:
Compton scattering is a type of scattering that X-rays and y-rays undergo
in matter. The inelastic scattering of photons in matter results in a decrease
1
in energy (increase in wavelength) of an X-ray or gamma photon, called the
Compton effect. Part of the energy of the X/gamma ray is transferred to a
scattering electron, which recoils and is ejected from its atom, and the rest of
the energy is taken by the scattered photon.
Pair Production:

Pair production refers to the creation of an elementary particle and its antiparticle, usually from a photon (or another neutral boson). This is allowed,
provided there is enough energy available to create the pair _ at least the total
rest mass energy of the two particles _ and that the situation allows both
energy and momentum to be conserved. All other conserved quantum numbers
of the produced particles must sum to zero, thus the created particles shall have
opposite values of each quantum number.
0.4.2 Scintilation detector :
Scintillation detectors are widely used to measure radiation. The detectors rely
on the emission of photons from excited states.
Steps :
1.An incident photon or particle ionizes the medium.
2.Ionized electrons slow down causing excitation.
3.Excited states immediately emit light.
4.Emitted photons strike a light-sensitive surface.
5.Electrons from the surface are amplified.
6.A pulse of electric current is measured.
Illustration :
First a high energy gamma photon came on this material named 'scintillator.
Scintillator has a property that it absorbs gamma rays .This can be done
in three ways as described Photo-electric effect, Compton Effect and Pair
production .
Now, Photo electric effect mostly occurs in low energy of incident gamma
photon but initially gamma has high energy of MeV order, Compton effect
occurs mostly in mid energy range .Pair production almost not occurs in this
comparative low energy (MeV) .Now to detect this presence of these gamma
photons we have to convert their interaction to electric pulse through photoelectric effect .Now this is possible in low energy so we have to decrease the
energy of the gamma photon in the first place.
The scintillator is a material that contains NaI.This absorbs
energy from gamma rays and makes Photo-electric effect possible.
This gives small electric pulses on gamma-photon interaction, this is amplified
by Photo multiplier tube.
2
0.4.3 Photo multiplier tube :

Figure 1 shows the photo multiplier inner configuration.

Working principle :
Incoming low energy gamma-photon comes from a scintillation output and
falls on a first photo-emissive cathode then this makes a free electron that goes
on to Dynodes1 there they makes some free electron from the material through
interaction and thus the increased number of electrons goes on through this type
reflection as can be seen from picture and finally we get a huge electron that is
recorded by a meter .Thus a small energy input is converted to a significant
current pulse. That's why this is called Photo multiplier tube.
0.4.4 How machine reads data :
Actually when gamma-photon falls on scintillation chamber then it gives signal to
multiplier it gives a corresponding current pulse. Now at a moment many
number of photons can fall on scintillation chamber then obviously current pulse
will have higher height. The pulse height depends on the number of photon
interacted.
Not only that the incident photons have a range of energy .The machine
has a small energy window that can be shifted.That means
1A dynode is an electrode in a vacuum tube that serves as an electron multiplier
through
secondary emission.
3

1140

18740

1180

20412

1220

16320

1260

8568

1300

10357

1340

8805

1380

14012

1420

8588

1460

8371

1500

7966

1540

8386

1580

8239

1620

8001

1660

7988

1700

8069

1740

7971

1780

8066

1820

7767

1860

8150

1900

7938

1940

8064

1980

8078

2020

7902

2060

8809

2100

8580

2140

8172

2180

8483

2220

7178

2260

7264

2300

6522

2340

6556

2380

7873

2420

6615

2460

6492

2500

6239

2540

6033

2580

6246

2620

5909

2660

5670

2700

5057

2740

4955

2780

5767

2820

5884

2860

5614

2900

4959

2940

3998

2980

4127

3020

2907

3060

4571

3100

2216

3140

2013

3180

2829

3220

2295

3260

207

3300

3340

3380

3420

Table 2: Window set to 20 mV

Baseline (mV)

Count

500

3337

540

3310

580

3251

620

3072

660

3155

700

2791

740

2180

780

1506

820

998

860

819

900

909

940

1342

980

1905

1020

2953

1060

4750

1100

8845

1140

12638

1180

12404

1220

8101

1260

2716

1300

768

1340

360

1380

264

1420

220

1460

221

1500

198

Graph:

Graph 1: Voltage window set to 40 mV

Graph 2: Voltage window set to 20 mV

Conclusion:
At first the window was set at 40v.Then the number of counts were noted for
different values
of the baseline voltage.Then the number of counts were plotted against the values
of the
baseline voltages.This gave graph 1. The first peak was observed in the 850-900 mv
region
of the baseline voltages.Consecutive peaks appeared at voltages 1060,1300 mv etc.
However the resolution is very poor,as the peaks are quite close to each other.
This indicates that we may have taken the window to be quite large(i.e 40 mv).
But we measured the output voltage signal amplitude by a CRO that suggested the
peak would be around baseline voltage of magnitude 1200 mv.
To obtain better resolution we reduce the window to 20 mv and take data and plot
it.

This shows a peak around 1140 mv which corresponds to gamma ray emission.