Characterization of XIA UltraLo-1800 Response to Measuring Charged Samples

TL;DR

This paper characterizes the XIA UltraLo-1800 alpha counter's response to charged samples, demonstrating modeling, correction methods, and the effectiveness of anti-static measures to improve detection efficiency.

Contribution

It provides a detailed characterization of the UltraLo-1800's response to embedded charge and introduces a simulation-based correction approach and anti-static solution.

Findings

Modeling effects with Geant4 is feasible.

Anti-static fan improves detection efficiency to 97.73%.

Embedded charge impacts alpha detection performance.

Abstract

Commercial alpha counters are used in science and industry applications to screen materials for surface radon progeny contamination. In this paper, we characterize an XIA UltraLo-1800, an ionization drift alpha counter, and study the response to embedded charge in polyethylene sample measurements. We show that modeling such effects is possible in a Geant4-based simulation framework and attempt to derive corrections. This paper also demonstrates the effectiveness of the use of an anti-static fan to eliminate the embedded charge and recover a 97.73% alpha detection efficiency in the alpha counter.