Well GeHP detector calibration for environmental measurements using reference materials

A Tedjani (1, 2) , C Mavon (1) , A Belafrites (2) , D Degrelle (1) , D Boumala (1, 2) , D Rius (1) , J.-E Groetz (1)

1 LCE - Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249)
2 LPRA - Laboratoire de Physique des Rayonnements et Applications

A well-type detector installed in the Modane underground Laboratory (LSM) can combine both low background and high detection efficiency and it is well suited for the analysis of small amounts of environmental samples. Reference materials such as IAEA-447 (moss-soil), IAEA-RG-Th1 and IAEA-RG-U1 were used for the detector calibration, owing to a chemical composition close to those of the environmental samples. Nevertheless , the matrix effects and the true coincidence summing effects must be corrected from the full energy peak efficiency (FEPE). The FEPE was performed for a wide range of energy by a semi-empirical method using Monte Carlo simulation (MCNP6), intended for environmental measurements such as lake sediments dating. In the well geometry, the true coincidence summing effects could be very important and correction factors have been computed in three different ways.

Mots clés: Well-type detector; Full energy peak efficiency; True coincidence summing; MCNP6; Efficiency correction

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]

A Tedjani, C Mavon, A Belafrites, D Degrelle, D Boumala, et al.. Well GeHP detector calibration for environmental measurements using reference materials. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2016, 838, pp.12-17. ⟨10.1016/j.nima.2016.09.022⟩. ⟨hal-01367643⟩