Optimization of the parameters affecting the solid state detector efficiency in alpha-spectrometry

Abstract

In radiochemical analysis, specially by using high resolution alpha-spectrometry, a key issue is the determination of the radiochemical yield. Radiochemical yield allows to determine the concentration of the radionuclide of interest and the quality of the chemical separation. To determine the radiochemical yield it is necessary to know the solid state detector efficiency, which can be obtained by calibration with a circular calibrated source. In this paper the optimization of the parameters affecting both the calibration and measurement of a source by alpha-spectrometry is described. The optimization is based on two sets of data: experimental and theoretical. Experimental data were obtained from the calibration of the solid state detector with four calibrated ²⁴¹Am sources. Theoretical data were calculated by geometry formulas and were verified experimentally.