Calculations of the interference of annihilation radiations with positron spectra in a Ge detector

Abstract

The distortion of the Kurie plots of allowed positron spectra due to annihilation radiations was calculated by a simple Monte-Carlo technique for a small intrinsic Ge detector. The experimentally observed non-linearity near the end point is accurately reproduced by the calculations. Corrections were calculated for 15 theoretical allowed spectra with end-point energies ranging from 2.5 to 10 MeV for one small detector 1.6 cm in diameter and 0.7 cm thick and one larger detector 4.0 cm in diameter and 1.0 cm thick. The major effect of this interference is to shift the end-point up in energy from 182 keV at 2.5 MeV and to 204 keV at 9 MeV in the small detector and from 279 keV at 2.5 MeV and to 321 keV at 9 MeV in the larger detector. The method was used to correct the end-point energies of the two positron branches in the decay of 82Sr. The corrected data give values of (3.19 ± 0.02) and (2.42 ± 0.02) MeV. The resulting Q-value is (4.21 ± 0.02) MeV.