Chapter 16 - Solid Scintillation Analysis

Abstract

The chapter begins with a description of inorganic crystal scintillators and their properties, and the mechanisms of scintillation in inorganic crystals. This leads to a description of the various components of the solid scintillation analyzer including the crystal detector, photomultipliers, pulse height discriminators, and single- and multichannel analyzers. The general concepts and principles of solid scintillation analysis are described including gamma-ray spectra, counting and detection efficiencies, activity determinations, self-absorption, counting geometry, spectral resolution, and background measurements. Automated methods of solid scintillation analysis are described including automated gamma analysis and microplate scintillation techniques. Included is a treatment of the scintillation process in plastic media and the application of plastic scintillators to radionuclide analysis. The chapter also provides a comprehensive treatment on the measurement of neutrons with inorganic scintillators, solid organic neutron scintillators, and neutron detectors with scintillating and optical fiber. Neutron/gamma pulse shape discrimination and Bonner sphere neutron spectrometry are included in detailed discussions on the measurement of neutrons with solid scintillators. Current principles and practice in the application of the Lucas cell for the measurement of 222 Rn are included. Advances in the development of phoswich detectors are described for the simultaneous detection and measurement of alpha, beta, and gamma rays and neutrons, low-level counters, the simultaneous measurement of neutron/gamma/proton fields, and simultaneous beta- and gamma-spectroscopy. Other state-of-the-art applications of inorganic crystal scintillators described in the chapter include neutrino detectors, the detection and measurement of double beta ( ββ ) decay, and the use of scintillating bolometers for the search for neutrinoless double beta (0 νββ ) decay and the search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs).