On Thu, Jan 16, 2020 at 08:45 AM, Charles David Young wrote:
One thing I have observed about Am241 is that it does not seem to excite much above 30keV.? The peaks below 20keV really light up though.?
I noticed that too, and by the time it gets to 59.5 it is really muted. This is same with all the silicon based detectors I've used. It's a matter of how much mass is there to react and absorb the "higher" energies.
For this reason I went with a thicker crystal in my SDD sensor (1mm thick instead of 1/2mm normal). It does work better at 59 but by no means does it go much higher than that.
So far have not found an "energy dependence" graph for any of these solid state detectors, but from experience the silicon and CdTe make a great pair, one picking up where the other starts to fall off. Silicon still reigns supreme for fwhm.
Si-PIN seems to be perfectly adequate for most things, the only advantage the SDD vs.
Si-PIN seems to be? a narrow band just? above and just below 1 keV, but this might be in the thinner Be window, not the sensor itself.
Another advantage and the real reason for going with the "Fast" SDD is its ability to handle much higher count rates, only required when using an X-Ray tube.
For the difference in $$, the Si-PIN is the best bang for the buck for the 1 to ~40 keV range.
Geo
