Chapter 9 - Solid scintillation analysis

Abstract

The chapter provides a description of inorganic crystal scintillators, their properties, and the mechanisms of scintillation in inorganic crystals. This includes a description of the various components of the solid scintillation analyzer, the crystal detector, photomultipliers, pulse height discriminators, single- and multichannel analyzers. 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 included automated gamma analysis and microplate scintillation techniques. A treatment of the scintillation process in plastic media and the applications of plastic scintillators are included. The chapter provides a treatment on the measurement of neutrons with inorganic scintillators, and neutron detectors with scintillating and optical fiber. Neutron/gamma pulse shape discrimination and Bonner sphere neutron spectrometry are described in discussions on the measurement of neutrons with solid scintillators. Principles and practice in the application of the Lucas cell for the measurement of 222Rn are included. Advances in the development of phoswich detectors are described for the simultaneous detection and measurement of alpha-, beta-, gamma-rays and neutrons, low-level counters, the simultaneous measurement of neutron/gamma/proton fields, and simultaneous beta- and gamma-spectroscopy. Other applications of inorganic crystal scintillators described include neutrino detectors, the detection and measurement of double beta (ββ) decay, and the use of scintillation detectors and scintillating bolometers in the search for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay and the search for weakly interacting massive particles.