Influence of the physical data to calibrate TEPCs

Sabina Chiriotti Alvarez, Davide Moro, Valeria Conte, Paolo Colautti, Bern Grosswendt, Edmond Sterpin, Stefaan Vynckier, Emiliano D'Agostino, Filip Vanhavere

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-4
JournalRadiation protection dosimetry
Volume165
Issue number1-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Apr 2015
EventMICROS-2013 16th Intern. Symposium on Microdosimetry - INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Treviso
Duration: 20 Oct 201525 Oct 2015

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