Characterization study of NaI(Tl) γ-summing spectrometer

Abstract

The accurate information regarding the β-decay half-life, feeding pattern from the neutron-rich nuclei have utmost importance in the field of nuclear waste management from the fission reactors as well as correct understanding about the r-process nucleosynthesis in stellar sites. The low capture cross-section measurements are also considered as major task by experimental nuclear astrophysicists. These kinds of measurements are really difficult with conventional high-resolution gamma spectroscopy techniques due to less efficiency of the detectors. For this purpose, we have an almost 4π γ-summing NaI(Tl) spectrometer at SINP, Kolkata. It is basically a cylindrical shaped detector with six sectors of NaI(Tl) crystals read by 6 photomultiplier tubes (PMT) at one end. The detailed characterization of the spectrometer via experiment using laboratory standard sources and GEANT4 simulation model to interpret all the interesting properties will be presented here in this paper.