Scintillators
Nuclear radiations are ionizing radiations; for nuclear radiation, the energies are released in the form of high-speed charged particles ( e.g. alpha particles, beta particles, and neutrons) or pulsating electromagnetic waves or rays (e.g. gamma rays). The principle and reason of nuclear radiation is that strong, stable balance of an atom relies on the interaction of electrical force between protons and electrons, if an atom's nucleus is unstable, it might emit nuclear radiation to release excess energies and keep the balance more stable. This spontaneous emission of energies is what makes the substance radioactive. Such elements with atoms of unstable nuclueus possesing excessive energies, which leads to radiation emission are defined as radioactive isotopes or radionuclide/radioactive nuclides. The term isotope refers to elements having the same number of protons in their atomic nuclei but different numbers of neutrons. The sources of nuclear radiation can be artificial or natural. Typical categories of nuclear material include special nuclear material (SNM), naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), medical isotopes, and industrial isotopes.
Radioactive Isotope Identification Device (RIID) refers to the technique or the device used for distinguishing between different radioisotopes utilizing the gamma spectroscopic techniques. The radioisotopes emit gamma radiations with specific “fingerprint” energies. The radiation detector absorbs the energy of each gamma ray and converts it into a corresponding electrical signal, which is proportional to the energy of the gamma ray. The radioisotope identifier then counts how many gamma rays of each energy are detected over a given period of time and plots the data into a gamma energy spectrum graph, which is essentially a graph with energies on the x-axis and the number of gamma radiations at each energy on the y-axis. The energy spectrum typically shows distinct "peaks" at the characteristic energies of the gamma rays emitted by the radioactive isotopes in the source. By forming a gamma spectrum in real time and comparing the characteristic energy peaks and peak ratios of known isotopes using software with pre-grammed isotope libraries, radioactive nuclide identification and radioactive nuclide monitoring can be realized.
A Multi-channel Analyzer (MCA) is a electronic digital processing device that convert the input electrical analog signal (often in the form of voltage pulses) generated from detectors into digital data using a fast analog-to-digital-converter (ADC) and process the data into histograms or spectrum graphs representing distribution of energies or timing of events that can be analyzed. There are two most common modes of multichannel analyzer, Pulse Height Analysis (PHA), and Multichannel Scaling (MCS). Pulse height analysis is often used for gamma spectroscopy, where the multichannel analyzer sorts the voltage pulses into discrete channels depending on the pulse amplitude (which correlates to the energies of radiation), the result is a graph with pulse height on the x-axis indicating energies and number of events (or counts) on the y-axis, creating an energy spectrum. The multichannel scaling mode records the time of arrival of each event, where the time intervals are sorted into channels, and a histogram is created showing the number of events that occurred in each time interval.
Hangzhou Shalom EO offers Handheld RIID Gamma Radiation Detectors and Tube Base Multichannel Analyzers.
Shalom EO’s tube base analyzers are designed for scintillation radiation detectors, the tube base MCA composes a pin base for PMT, a built-in high voltage module, a preamplifier, multi-channel pulse amplitude analyzer, an Ethernet port with the power of Ethernet (POE) feature, and a embedded software with automatic spectrum stabilization. Our tube base MCA is compatible with 14-pin base E687-14W PMT and various scintillation detectors, including NaI(Tl), LaBr3(Ce), CeBr3, SrI2 detectors, etc. The resolution of channels includes 1024 channels, 2048 channels, and up to 4096 channels. The embedded software has an API that supports secondary development and integration.
Shalom EO’s Handheld RIID Radiation Detectors are a lightwight, compact gamma spectrometer and radioisotope identifier developed based on NaI(Tl)/LaBr3(Ce) scintillation detector plus Geiger Muller tubes. Our radioactive isotope identifiers are designed for hand-held, convenient operations of various radioactive isotope monitoring tasks, including γ-ray dose rate measurement, radioactive source search and rapid radioactive isotope identification, where the results can be compliant with the ANSI standard. The handheld RIID radiation detectors incorporate a novel nuclear spectrum measurement processing architecture and advanced digital filtering algorithms, in addition to automatic spectrum stabilization and diagnostics, enhancing the energy resolutions and making the performance more reliable over time. The built-in software allows identification of 16 radionuclides of 4 categories, which can be edited and customized; the data can be uploaded and automatically transformed into reports via host software. Our hand-held gamma radiation detector for radioisotope identification can be used for a wide range of applications, including homeland security, border inspection, nuclear power plants, scientific research labs, etc.
As nuclear radiation detection technologies have evolved quickly in recent years towards the direction of being lighter, more compact, and more integrated, Hangzhou Shalom EO is poised to pursue this technical trend and march toward the realm of integrated nuclear radiation detectors and related accessories or parts or even all-in-one solutions and systems. With dedicated technical enthA usiasm for innovation, combining years of hands-on experience with professional expertise, Hangzhou Shalom EO aims to be your reliable companion offering solutions for your nuclear detection projects.
