PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORDING METHODS IN NUCLEAR PULSE SPECTROMETRY
Applications of photographic techniques as a tool in measuring pulse amplitude (PA) distributions fall into 3 general groups: (1) Recording of individual events as they arrive from the nuclear radiation detector, with subsequent analysis based on visual or photoelectric inspection of the record. (2) Time exposures of a large series of events, the distribution analysis being provided by the exposure-density correspondence in the photographic process. (3) Use for permanent storage of results from counting equipment, after the pulse sorting has been performed electronically. The first and third groups are reviewed and some improvements of existing techniques suggested. For the second group a thorough presentation of design problems and evaluation procedures is attempted. Gray wedge (GW) techniques lead to a straightforward quantitative interpretation of photographed PA spectra. The simplest version of a fast GW spectromoter consists of a commercial oscilloscope and a special plug-in adaptor unit. The adaptor described provides double rectangular pulse shaping, various shape corrections, overload protection, and generates an exponential sawtooth voltage derived from the linear oscilloscope sweep. This simple GW spectrameter is particularly useful at high counting rates. For a more general use (at both high and low intensities) additional parts such as pulse stretchers, gating circults and various sweep or wedge arrangements are needed. Stretching and gating requirements are discussed from a general point of view. Various methods of producing GW effects are reviewed and the calculated wedge characteristics aad light efficiencies compared. The high speed at which information from electronic counting equipment may be accepted for permanent storage on film makes the use of photographic techniques particularly attractive for automatic recording. Programming of a serial memory spectrometer including dead time correction is described. A scanning mechanism is proposed to read previous results back into the spectrometer memory, with provision fur semi-automatic computation of linear combinations. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- E.T.H., Zurich
- NSA Number:
- NSA-12-010831
- OSTI ID:
- 4305574
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Instr., Vol. Vol: 2; Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-58
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
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