The physical mechanism of alpha-particle-air interaction and analysis of long-range secondary particles yield

Abstract

The α-particle detection has a pivotal role in radiation measurement. Standoff α-particle detection has advantages such as high efficiency and safety compared with the traditional method. However, the low yield of the characteristic signal significantly limits the broad application of this technique. To efficiently perform standoff detection of α-particle, the physical mechanism of α-particle interaction with air, the various secondary effects generated, and the yields are systematically analyzed in this paper. The results show that in addition to the radioluminescence, which is the focus of most current studies, the characteristic X-rays also meet the requirements as a characteristic signal for standoff detection. The processes of induced generation of these two secondary particles in the air are studied, the yields of characteristic X-rays of nitrogen and oxygen atoms and the yields of radioluminescence photons in the near-ultraviolet (UVA/UVB) and deep-ultraviolet (UVC) bands are given, respectively. The interference brought by the presence of β-particles and γ-particles to the α-detection when the radiation field is more complex is also quantitatively analyzed.