Calibration of HPGe Detector Efficiencies With Self-Absorption Correction of Gas Sphere Sources

Abstract

Several types of radioactive gases are released from the nuclear reactor. In order to measure the activity of such gases, it is necessary to calculate the accurate efficiency. Practically, efficiency calibration with gaseous sources is not very easy because of the low half-lives of the noble gases. For this purpose, Monte Carlo (MC) simulation was performed to study the full energy peak efficiency of two n-type high-purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors. Two spheres of xenon and krypton composition sources with two nuclides (Xe133 and Kr85) and two-point sources were simulated, covering the energy range from 81 keV to 604 keV. Self-absorption correction factors were calculated with GEANT4 for two gas sphere samples and obtained good efficiency agreement with the experimental results. The simulation was performed for various gas samples with different densities and observed their effects on the full energy peak efficiency value of two detectors. The corresponding self-absorption correction factors were calculated for each gaseous sample and investigated that the self-absorption correction factors not only depend on the sample characteristics but also on the detector geometry and source to detector distance. The dependence of the full energy peak efficiency on the side cap wall material and their thicknesses were also carried out for some particular photon energies.