An electronically collimated portable gamma-ray detector for locating environmental radiation sources

Kenneth L. Matthews II; Blair M. Smith; Adam W. Lackie; William H. Hill Jr.; Wei-Hsung Wang; Michael L. Cherry

doi:10.1117/12.683568

30 August 2006 An electronically-collimated portable gamma-ray detector for locating environmental radiation sources

Kenneth L. Matthews II, Blair M. Smith, Adam W. Lackie, William H. Hill Jr., Wei-Hsung Wang, Michael L. Cherry

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6319, Hard X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Detector Physics and Penetrating Radiation Systems VIII; 63190H (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.683568
Event: SPIE Optics + Photonics, 2006, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We are developing a detector system for locating environmental radiation sources. The design emphasizes compact size (ideally hand-held), wide field of view and high detection efficiency, and uses cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) detectors and electronic collimation via Compton-scatter detection. The detector design is a 6-sided box with a primary scatter detector on one end. GEANT4 simulations, allowing variations of detector parameters and source energies/locations, provided performance estimates. A partial prototype, using 16x16-pixel 38x38x5-mm³ CZT detectors, was developed and tested. Two methods to calculate source direction in real-time from the Compton scatter data were evaluated: (1) filtered backprojection of cones onto a sphere; (2) intersection with the sphere of bounding boxes circumscribed around the cones. Simulation results of the 6-sided box with the current CZT modules indicated 1-5% of incident gamma rays produce valid direction angles, with an angular resolution of ~15°. The directional algorithms allowed a FOV (directional error <10°) of approximately ±60°. The direction algorithms converge on a source direction estimate in as few as 100 detected events. With improvements in detector energy and spatial resolution, reasonable performance seems achievable for a range of radioisotopes, e.g., from Am-241 through Co-60.

Citation Download Citation

Kenneth L. Matthews II, Blair M. Smith, Adam W. Lackie, William H. Hill Jr., Wei-Hsung Wang, and Michael L. Cherry "An electronically-collimated portable gamma-ray detector for locating environmental radiation sources", Proc. SPIE 6319, Hard X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Detector Physics and Penetrating Radiation Systems VIII, 63190H (30 August 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.683568

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