Photon spectrometry in thermal neutron standard field

An NE213 liquid scintillation counter (5.08 cm in diameter and 5.08 cm long) with an LiF filter was used to measure the energy distribution of photons mixed in a thermal neutron field. The response function matrix of photons in an energy range up to 10 MeV was calculated by the EGS4/PRESTA code and properly folded with a resolution function. Pulse height spectra measured with a set of reference γ-ray sources were compared to the calculated response function and agreed very well for all reference γ-ray sources. The GRAVEL and MIEKE codes from the HEPRO program were used to unfold measured pulse height spectra. Energy distributions obtained by the unfolding were applied to evaluate the effective dose equivalent of photons mixed in a thermal neutron field.     

In-phantom spectra and dose distributions from a high-energy neutron therapy beam

In radiotherapy with external beams, healthy tissues surrounding the target volumes are inevitably irradiated. In the case of neutron therapy, the estimation of dose to the organs surrounding the target volume is particularly challenging, because of the varying contributions from primary and secondary neutrons and photons of different energies. The neutron doses to tissues surrounding the target volume at the Louvain-la-Neuve (LLN) facility were investigated in this work. At LLN, primary neutrons have a broad spectrum with a mean energy of about 30 MeV. The transport of a 10×10 cm² beam through a water phantom was simulated by means of the Monte Carlo code MCNPX. Distributions of energy-differential values of neutron fluence, kerma and kerma equivalent were estimated at different locations in a water phantom. The evolution of neutron dose and dose equivalent inside the phantom was deduced. Measurements of absorbed dose and of dose equivalent were then carried out in a water phantom using an ionization chamber and superheated drop detectors (SDDs). On the beam axis, the calculations agreed well with the ionization chamber data, but disagreed significantly from the SDD data due to the detector's under-response to neutrons above 20 MeV. Off the beam axis, the calculated absorbed doses were significantly lower than the ionization chamber readings, since gamma fields were not accounted for. The calculated data are doses from neutron-induced charge particles, and these agreed with the values measured by the photon-insensitive SDDs. When exposed to the degraded spectra off the beam axis, the SDD offered reliable estimates of the neutron dose equivalent.     

Radiation shielding of concretes containing different aggregates

The shielding of γ-rays by concrete has been investigated for concretes containing different amounts of barite and normal weight aggregates. The linear attenuation coefficients (μ, cm⁻¹) have been calculated at photon energies of 1 keV to 100 GeV using XCOM and the obtained results compared with the measurements at the photon energies of 0.66 MeV and 1.33 MeV. It is shown that the type of the aggregate is more important than the amount of aggregate used in concrete for γ-ray shielding.     

Monte Carlo method for simulating γ-ray interaction with materials: A case study on Si

In the present work, a Monte Carlo (MC) method has been developed to simulate various quantum mechanical processes for the energy loss of photons and fast electrons. The MC model is demonstrated by application to the interaction of photons with silicon over the energy range from 50 eV to 2 MeV and the subsequent electron cascades. The electron cascade process is commonly represented by two macroscopic parameters, the mean energy required to create an electron–hole pair, W, and the Fano factor, F, describing the electron yield and its variance. At energies lower than 5 keV, W generally decreases with increasing photon energy (from 3.96 to 3.58 eV), and it exhibits a sawtooth variation, as observed previously. However, discontinuities at the shell edges follow the photoionization cross-section, in contrast to previous results. The function, F(E_p), initially increases with increasing photon energy, E_p, to a maximum value of 0.187 around 155 eV, and then decreases at higher energies. Above the K shell edge, F has a value of 0.135. These results are consistent with experimental observations. The simulated distribution indicates that the interband transition and plasmon excitation are the most important mechanisms of electron–hole pair creation, while core shell ionization appears to be significant only at high energies.     

Measurement of absorbed dose by 7-GeV bremsstrahlung in a PMMA phantom

High-energy electron storage rings generate energetic bremsstrahlung photons through radiative interaction of the particle beam with the residual gas molecules and other components inside the storage ring. At synchrotron radiation facilities, where beamlines are channeled out of the storage ring, a continuous bremsstrahlung spectrum, with a maximum energy of the stored particle beam, will be present. At the advanced photon source (APS), where the stored beam energy is 7 GeV, bremsstrahlung generated in the straight sections of the insertion device beamlines, which are a total of 15.38 m in length, can be significant. The contribution from each bremsstrahlung interaction adds up to produce a narrow mono-directional bremsstrahlung beam that comes down through the insertion device beamlines. The resulting absorbed dose distributions by this radiation in a 300 mm×300 mm×300 mm tissue substitute cube phantom were measured with LiF:Mg,Ti (TLD-700) thermoluminescent dosemeters. The normalized absorbed dose, in a cross-sectional area of 100 mm² at a depth of 150 mm of the PMMA phantom, was measured as 3.3×10⁶ mGy h⁻¹W⁻¹ for 7-GeV bremsstrahlung spectrum.     

Commissioning and performance of X-ray absorption spectroscopy beamline at the Siam Photon Laboratory

We report commissioning results and performance of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) beamline, BL-8, at the Siam Photon Laboratory. BL-8 has been opened for users since the year 2006. It is tunable by a fixed-exit double crystal monochromator equipped with InSb(1 1 1), Si(1 1 1), and Ge(2 2 0) crystals covering photon energy from 1830 to 9000 eV. Thus elemental absorption K-edges of silicon up to copper can be investigated. Other heavier elements may be studied via their L or M edges. The front end is windowless and the beamline is terminated with a Kapton window followed by the XAS station equipped with ionization chambers for transmission-mode measurements. The measured photon flux at sample is approximately 10⁸–10¹⁰ photons/s/100 mA for the 1 mm×10 mm beam size. The commissioning XANES spectra of sulfur standards and EXAFS spectra of copper are presented.     

Response of a BaF2 scintillation detector to quasi-monoenergetic fast neutrons in the range of 45 to 198 MeV

We have studied the neutron response of a scintillation detector consisting of a 14 cm long, hexagonal-shaped BaF₂-crystal with an inner diameter of 8.75 cm coupled to an EMI9821QB photomultiplier tube. The detector was exposed to calibrated quasi-monoenergetic neutron fields obtained from ⁷Li(p,n)⁷Be reactions. The measurements were performed at neutron energies of 45, 60, 96, 147 and 198 MeV as given by the energies of the incident protons. The experimental pulse-height spectra of the BaF₂-detector are compared with Monte Carlo simulations using the FLUKA code. The detection efficiency of the BaF₂-detector in the energy range of 45–198 MeV was determined as a function of the discriminator threshold and compared to the literature data. At neutron energies above 100 MeV the detection efficiency of the BaF₂-detector was found to be a factor of two higher than that of an NE213-detector of comparable size.     

Portable triple silicon detector telescope spectrometer for skin dosimetry

The features of a newly developed portable beta telescope spectrometer are described. The detector probe uses three silicon detectors with the thickness: 50 μm/150 μm/7000 μm covered by a 2 μm thick titanium window. Rejection of photon contributions from mixed beta/photon exposures is achieved by coincidence requirements between the detector signals. The silicon detectors, together with cooling aggregate, bias supplies, preamplifiers and charge generation for calibration are contained in a handy detector probe. Through a 3- or 10-m cable the detector unit is connected to a compact, portable processing unit including a laptop computer executing control, monitor, histogram and display tasks. The use of digital signal processing at an early stage of the signal chain has facilitated the achievement of a compact, low-weight device. 256 channels are available for each of the three detectors. The LabVIEW^TM software distributed by National Instruments was used for all program developments for the spectrometer, comprising also the capability of evaluating the absorbed dose rates from the measured beta spectra. The report describes the capability of the telescope spectrometer to measure beta and photon spectra as well as beta dose rates in mixed beta/photon radiation fields. It also describes the main features of the digital signal-processing electronics.     

Ultralow-concentration Sm codoping in CsI:Tl scintillator: A case of little things can make a big difference

CsI:Tl scintillators were hindered from computer tomography and high-speed imaging applications by a serious afterglow problem. In this study, the effects of ultralow-concentration Sm codoping on the scintillation characteristics of CsI:Tl were investigated. Pulsed X-ray excited afterglow after 50 ms in 0.005 mol% Sm-codoped CsI:Tl was lowered by over one order of magnitude in comparison with Sm-free one. The beneficial effects of ultralow-concentration Sm codoping also appeared to be maintaining the light yield and energy resolution. The light yield and energy resolution after 0.005 mol% Sm codoping were 71,700 ± 6000 photons/MeV and 6.9% at 662 keV, respectively.     

Neutron and gamma spectra measurements and calculations in benchmark spherical iron assemblies with 252Cf neutron source in the centre

The neutron and gamma spectra measurements have been made for benchmark iron spherical assemblies with the diameter of 30, 50 and 100 cm. The ²⁵²Cf neutron sources with different emissions were placed into the centre of iron spheres. In the first stage of the project, independent laboratories took part in the leakage spectra measurements. The proton recoil method was used with stilbene crystals and hydrogen proportional counters. The working range of spectrometers for neutrons is in energy range from 0.01 to 16 MeV, and for gamma from 0.40 to 12 MeV. Some adequate calculations have been carried out. The authors propose to carefully analyse the leakage mixed neutron and gamma spectrum from iron sphere of diameter 50 cm and then adopt that field as standard.     

A wide-range direction neutron spectrometer

A new device is presented which has been developed for measuring the energy and direction of distribution of neutron fluence in fields of broad energy spectra (thermal to 100 MeV) and with a high background of photon, electron and muon radiation. The device was tested in reference fields with different energy and direction distributions of neutron fluence. The direction-integrated fluence spectra agree fairly well with reference spectra. In all cases, the ambient and personal dose equivalent values calculated from measured direction-differential spectra are within 35% of the reference values. Independent measurements of the directional dose equivalent were performed with a directional dose equivalent monitor based on superheated drop detectors.     

Charpy impact test on A508-3 steel after neutron irradiation

Reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is the critical un-changeable component of the reactor during its service lifetime, which prevents the radioactive leak of the nuclear power plant core. The irradiation test (about 10 × 10¹⁹ cm^− 2, E > 1 MeV) in research reactor of the pressure vessel material was carried out, and the charpy impact test has been carried out before and after the neutron irradiation. Analysis of the impact energy and the fracture morphology has been done to estimate the embrittlement due to neutron irradiation. It shows that the main effects of neutron irradiation to fracture are the crack initiation and stable expansion process. And there also are a small amount of intergranular fracture in the unstable crack expansion after neutron irradiated which aware us pay more attention to the increasing intergranular fracture behavior of higher neutron fluence level after 60a nuclear power plant operation.     

The neutron component of two high-energy photon reference fields

The 4.4 MeV photon reference field described in ISO 4037 is produced by the (12)C(p,p')(12)C (E(x) = 4.4389 MeV) reaction using a thick elemental carbon target and a proton beam with an energy of 5.7 MeV. The relative abundance of the isotope (13)C in elemental carbon is 1.10%. Therefore, the 4.4 MeV photon field is contaminated by neutrons produced by the (13)C(p,n) (13)N reaction (Q = -3.003 MeV). The ambient dose equivalent H*(10) produced by these neutrons is of the same order of magnitude as the ambient dose equivalent produced by the 4.4 MeV photons. For the calibration of dosemeters, especially those also sensitive to neutrons, the spectral fluence distribution of these neutrons has to be known in detail. On the other hand, a mixed photon/neutron field is very useful for the calibration of tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPC), if this field combines a high-linear energy transfer (LET) component produced by low-energy neutrons and a low-LET component resulting from photons with about the same ambient dose equivalent and energies up to 7 MeV. Such a mixed field was produced at the PTB accelerator facility using a thin CaF(2) + (nat)C target and a 5.7 MeV proton beam.     

Measurements of the proton light output function of the organic liquid scintillator NE213 in several detectors

When using an organic liquid scintillator such as NE213 for neutron spectrometry, the light output as a function of proton energy is needed in order to unfold the neutron spectrum from the scintillator's pulse height distribution. We have measured this function for several detectors over the range 1.5–16 MeV approximately, using monoenergetic neutrons from the Harwell 5 MV Van de Graaff accelerator. Results were obtained for a wide variety of sizes and shapes of the scintillator cell, and were found to be essentially in agreement within errors. The results were also compared with those of several other workers (amongst whom there is considerable disagreement). Below 10 MeV, there is excellent agreement with one worker and moderate or poor agreement with others; above 10 MeV, agreement is moderate in all cases. We conclude that workers wishing to unfold neutron spectra from NE213 pulse height distributions would be advised to make measurements with their own particular detector configuration, rather than use published functions.     

Direct measurement of total emissivities at cryogenic temperatures: Application to satellite coatings

This paper presents a direct measurement method for optical properties of different materials at cryogenic temperatures from 20 K to 200 K. It has been developed within the framework of the design of Planck program. Planck is a satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) that will be launched in 2008. The scientific goal of the Planck mission is to make observations of the temperature anisotropy and polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The equivalent temperature of the observed radiation is about 3 K and the telescope baffle temperature should not exceed 60 K in order to work properly. The large Planck telescope is passively cooled by radiating to the Deep Space, so that a good knowledge of the thermo-optical properties of its coating is of utmost importance for thermal modelling. However, up to now, few measurements have been done at such low temperatures. We derived a direct measurement method for the total directional emissivity of various coatings of interest for satellites applications. The effective spectral range chosen the measurements covers 6–800 μm. We will describe the design of the measurement apparatus and present results for several coatings.     

Measurement of neutron energy spectra from 15 to 150 MeV using stacked liquid scintillators

A multiple liquid scintillator system for measuring the energy spectrum of a neutron beam in the range 15–150 MeV is described. Two or more slabs of NE213 scintillator (13×13×7 cm³) are stacked behind one-another and only events in which a neutron interacts in the upstream scintillator are analysed. The system is designed to minimise the escape of forward recoil protons from the detecting media. Test measurements and Monte Carlo simulations of the detector response to quasi-monoenergetic neutron beams of energies 62.5 and 97.5 MeV are presented.     

Measurement of neutron dose equivalent to proton therapy patients outside of the proton radiation field

Measurements of neutron dose equivalent values and neutron spectral fluences close to but outside of the therapeutic proton radiation field are presented. The neutron spectral fluences were determined at five locations with Bonner sphere measurements and established by unfolding techniques. More than 50 additional neutron dose equivalent values were measured with LiI and BF₃ thermal neutron detectors surrounded by a 25 cm polyethylene moderating sphere. For a large-field treatment, typical values of neutron dose equivalent per therapeutic proton absorbed dose, H/D, at 50 cm distance from isocenter, range from 1 mSv/Gy (at 0° with respect to the proton beam axis) to 5 mSv/Gy (at 90°). Experiments reveal that H/D varies significantly with the treatment technique, e.g., patient orientation, proton beam energy, and range-modulation. The relative uncertainty in H/D values is approximately 40% (one standard deviation).     

Theoretical calculations of the primary defects induced by pions and protons in SiC

In the present work, the bulk degradation of SiC in hadron (pion and proton) fields, in the energy range between 100 MeV and 10 GeV, is characterised theoretically by means of the concentration of primary defects per unit fluence. The results are compared to the similar ones corresponding to diamond, silicon and GaAs.     

Sub-bandgap analysis of boron doped InSe single crystals by constant photocurrent method

Sub-bandgap absorption properties of indium selenide doped with boron atoms within a range of [B] = 0–1.8 at.% have been investigated. From the absorption coefficient spectra measured by using constant photocurrent method (CPM) at 300 K, we observed that the disorder in the structure increases. The calculated Urbach parameters, quantifying the disorder, vary from 17 to 53 meV, as [B] is increased from 0 to 1 at.%. Also the calculated optical gaps decrease from 1.28 eV to 1.17 eV for the same range of [B]. From temperature dependent dark conductivity measurements, the characteristic activation energies are calculated to range from 0.25 to 0.18 eV for vertical (to c-axis) direction; to stay almost constant for parallel (c-axis) direction. At a temperature of 12 K, the absorption coefficient spectra by using CPM and the radiative recombination spectra by photoluminescence (PL) have been taken for the samples with [B] = 0 and 0.5 at.%. Three main PL bands are observed at photon energies of ∼1.24, 1.306 and 1.337 eV. The PL bands are interpreted by corresponding absorption bands detected at 12 K and at the photon energies of ∼1.24, ∼1.31 and ∼1.35 eV.     

Silica–silica polyimide buffered optical fibre irradiation and strength experiment at cryogenic temperatures for 355 nm pulsed lasers

A controlled UV-light delivery system is envisioned to be built in order to study the stability properties of superconducting strands. The application requires a wave guide from room temperature to cryogenic temperatures. Hydrogen loaded and unloaded polyimide buffered silica–silica 100 μm core fibres were tested at cryogenic temperatures. A thermal stress test was done at 1.9 K and at 4.2 K which shows that the minimal mechanical bending radius for the fibre can be 10 mm for testing (transmission was not measured). The cryogenic transmission loss was measured for one fibre to assess the magnitude of the transmission decrease due to microbending that takes place during cooldown. UV-irradiation degradation measurements were done for bent fibres at 4.2 K with a deuterium lamp and 355 nm pulsed lasers. The irradiation tests show that the fibres have transmission degradation only for wavelengths smaller than 330 nm due to the two photon absorption. The test demonstrates that the fibres are suitable for the cryogenic UV applications with 355 nm and 70 μJ pulsed lasers.