Engineering Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK.
School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
Sensors (Basel). 2018 Jun 5;18(6):1842. doi: 10.3390/s18061842.
In many field applications where alpha-induced radioluminescence (or so-called UV fluorescence) could potentially be used for stand-off detection of alpha-emitting materials, it may not be possible to create a fully purged gas atmosphere. Hence, an alternative gas delivery method to utilise the radioluminescence enhancing properties of gases has been investigated, with the novel results from this presented herewithin. A solar blind ultraviolet C (UVC) sensor (UVTron R9533, Hamamatsu, Japan) has been used to detect changes in the signal in the UVC wavelength range (180⁻280 nm), where gases of Ar, Xe, Ne, N₂, Kr, and P-10 were flowed over a 6.95 MBq Po source using a narrow diameter pipe close to the source. In comparison with an air atmosphere, there was an increase in signal in all instances, the greatest being the flow of Xe, which in one instance greater than doubled the average counts per second. This increase in signal could prove beneficial in the design of a stand-off alpha detector to detect the very small UVC radioluminescence signals from alpha-emitting materials found in nuclear decommissioning environments.
在许多领域应用中，α 辐射发光（或所谓的紫外荧光）有可能用于对发射α 粒子的物质进行远距离探测，但可能无法创建完全净化的气体环境。因此，研究了一种替代的气体输送方法，以利用气体的放射发光增强特性，本文介绍了这方面的新结果。使用了一款太阳盲紫外 C（UVC）传感器（UVTron R9533，日本滨松）来检测 UVC 波长范围（180-280nm）内信号的变化，其中 Ar、Xe、Ne、N₂、Kr 和 P-10 气体通过靠近源的小直径管道流过一个 6.95MBq 的 Po 源。与空气环境相比，所有情况下的信号都有所增加，其中 Xe 的流量增加最大，有一次甚至超过了每秒平均计数的两倍。这种信号的增加可能有助于设计一种远距离α探测器，以探测核退役环境中发射α 粒子的物质产生的非常微弱的 UVC 放射发光信号。
