Influence of the physical data to calibrate TEPCs

Tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPCs) measure distributions of ionizations, produced in the gas cavity by the radiation field which are afterwards converted into distributions of energy imparted by applying a calibration factor. To calibrate the pulse height spectra, firstly, a marker point must be identified in the measured spectrum. Then, an accurate value of lineal energy must be assigned to this marker. A common marker that is often used for calibration is the so-called proton-edge (p-edge). It is a distinctive feature of a proton or neutron spectrum which corresponds to the maximum amount of energy that a proton can deposit in the active volume of the detector. A precise method to identify the marker point was applied to identify the p-edge with an uncertainty below 2%. To evaluate the final uncertainty of the calibration, the uncertainty of the energy value assigned to the p-edge must also be considered. This value can be evaluated using different energy-range tables. This study investigates how the choice of different input databases for calibration purposes influences the calibration. The effect of three different frequently used sets of input data was analysed for pure propane gas and for propane-TE gas mixture.