Characterization of a cosmic suppression spectrometer

Thien Thanh Tran (1, 2) , Laurent Ferreux (1) , Marie-Christine Lepy (1) , Chau Van Tao (2) , Sylvie Pierre (1)

1 LNHB - Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel
2 HCMC - University of Sciences [Ho Chi Minh City]

In this work, PENELOPE2008 and MCNP5 software packages were used to investigate the effect of simulation parameters such as cut-off energy of photons and electrons on the detector response function and peak escape intensity to assess their influence on the efficiency determination. The results showed a general agreement between the two codes, however both the intensity of escape peaks and total efficiency computed with PENELOPE2008 are higher than those obtained with MCNP5. Moreover, the calculated efficiencies are typically 8% higher than what is experimentally found in the low energy range. Further investigation was required to obtain better agreement and lead to better estimate of the real germanium crystal dimensions and dead layer.

Keywords: Cut-off; MCNP; PENELOPE; Escape peak; Efficiency calibration; Monte Carlo simulation

Domains: Physics [physics]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Computer Science [cs]; Modeling and Simulation

Thien Thanh Tran, Laurent Ferreux, Marie-Christine Lepy, Chau Van Tao, Sylvie Pierre. Characterization of a cosmic suppression spectrometer. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 2013, 81, pp.114-118. ⟨10.1016/j.apradiso.2013.03.065⟩. ⟨cea-01816685⟩