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Effects of the photocathode non-uniformity on radon measurements by plastic scintillation spectrometry

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Abstract

This work shows a study of the effect of the non-uniformity of photocathode response on the energy resolution of plastic scintillators optimized for pulse-shape discrimination. The studies were performed with Hamamatsu R7600U-200 and R9779 photomultiplier tubes. The pulse-height and pulse-shape spectra were obtained for a small piece of radon-222 loaded plastic scintillator positioned at different places on the photocathode. We show that alpha spectra can be approximated well with a normal distribution if the non-uniformity of the photon response of the photocathode is minimized. In the cases when the non-uniformity cannot be minimized, we propose an analytical function which describes the shape of the alpha peaks well under a variety of conditions. A possible effect of the non-uniformity of the photocathode response on the primary activity measurements by liquid scintillation counting is highlighted.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Bulgarian National Scientific Research Fund under contract KP-06-H38/9 from 06.12.19 (TDCX).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Physics, Sofia University ‘‘St. Kliment Ohridski’’, 5 James Bourchier Blvd, 1164, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Vladislav T. Todorov, Chavdar Ch. Dutsov, Philippe Cassette & Krasimir K. Mitev

  2. Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland

    Chavdar Ch. Dutsov

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  1. Vladislav T. Todorov
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  2. Chavdar Ch. Dutsov
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  3. Philippe Cassette
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  4. Krasimir K. Mitev
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Correspondence to Krasimir K. Mitev.

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Todorov, V.T., Dutsov, C.C., Cassette, P. et al. Effects of the photocathode non-uniformity on radon measurements by plastic scintillation spectrometry. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 3249–3258 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08362-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08362-6

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