Production of monochromatic $^{228}$Ra $\alpha$-sources for detector characterization

TL;DR

This paper presents a flexible method to produce monochromatic $^{228}$Ra alpha sources for detector characterization, addressing the need for custom sources due to alpha radiation's unique properties, with practical applications demonstrated.

Contribution

The work introduces a novel technique to produce $^{228}$Ra alpha sources from CERN's ISOLDE facility for detector studies, enabling more accurate detector response analysis.

Findings

Successful production of $^{228}$Ra alpha sources from primary ions.

Application to scintillators and bolometric detectors demonstrated.

Enhanced understanding of detector response to alpha radiation.

Abstract

The response of particle detectors to different types of radiation is not necessarily identical and, in some cases, neglecting this behavior can lead to a misinterpretation of the acquired data. While commercial radioactive sources are in general suitable to investigate the response to $\beta$'s and $\gamma$'s, in the case of $\alpha$'s the need for custom-made sources arises from the intrinsic properties of $\alpha$ radiation, which imposes that the emitter directly faces the detector. In this work, we show how to flexibly produce $\alpha$ sources to be employed in multiple studies of detector characterization. These are obtained starting from a set of primary sources obtained from the collection of radioactive $^{228}$Ra ions at the ISOLDE facility at CERN. We illustrate the potential of this technique with practical cases of application to scintillators and bolometric detectors and examples of the results obtained so far.