Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

DETERMINATION OF THE LIQUID SCINTILLATION COUNTING INEFFICIENCY (WALL EFFECT) FOR ALPHA EMITTERS, USING THE ALPHA-GAMMA ANTICOINCIDENCE METHOD

Published

Author(s)

Ryan P. Fitzgerald, Anne M. Forney

Abstract

The wall effect in liquid scintillation (LS) counting is the loss of efficiency in the case that an alpha-particle hits a surface (wall or air) before depositing enough energy to be detected. We report our measurements of this LS inefficiency using the 4-pi alpha-gamma anticoincidence method with corrections for the presence of gamma-rays, x-rays and electrons during some alpha decays. We derive the Benjamin equation and test the application of this equation to LS alpha counting. Our value for the LS inefficiency is (6 ± 5)•10^-5 for a typical low-energy threshold level. This value is consistent with most literature values, but is smaller than the value reported by Cassette (2002) of about 2•10^-3. We discuss possible reasons for this disagreement.
Citation
Radiocarbon

Keywords

Liquid scintillation, LSC, LS efficiency, wall effect

Citation

Fitzgerald, R. and Forney, A. (2011), DETERMINATION OF THE LIQUID SCINTILLATION COUNTING INEFFICIENCY (WALL EFFECT) FOR ALPHA EMITTERS, USING THE ALPHA-GAMMA ANTICOINCIDENCE METHOD, Radiocarbon, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=906829 (Accessed April 25, 2024)
Created July 19, 2011, Updated June 2, 2021