Using of the natural radioactive elements for determining Ge-detector efficiencies

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method using natural radioactive elements like uranium, potassium, and lanthanum to determine the efficiencies of Ge-detectors, improving accuracy by accounting for gamma-ray absorption.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach employing natural radioactive elements and correction coefficients for precise Ge-detector efficiency calibration.

Findings

Discrepancy in activity measurements does not exceed 7%

Efficiency curve obtained using reference gamma sources

Correction coefficients account for gamma-ray absorption variations

Abstract

A method is proposed to use of the mixture of Uran oxide and non-active matrix (e.g., NaCl) and also potassium and lanthanum for determining Ge-detector efficiencies. The preparations containing of known amouts of the U or K, or La were measured by means of the Ge-detector, which a efficiency curve has been obtained through the reference solutions of 241Am, 109Cd, 57Co, 139Ce, 137Cs, 60Co. Results the measurements were compared the activities of the preparations calculated from mass of 235U, 238U, 138La, 40K in the samples, its natural abundance, half lives and intensities of gamma lines. Discrepancy of the activities in the energy range between 163 and 1461 keV does not exeed 7 %. For correct comparison of the activities the coefficients {\omega} were calculated, which took into consideration a varied sorption of gamma-rays in water and in mixture of the Uran oxide and matrix.