An optimized design of single-channel beta-gamma coincidence phoswich detector by Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations

Abstract

An optimized single-channel phoswich well detector design has been proposed and assessed in order to improve beta-gamma coincidence measurement sensitivity of xenon radioisotopes. This newly designed phoswich well detector consists of a plastic beta counting cell (BC404) embedded in a CsI(Tl) crystal coupled to a photomultiplier tube. The BC404 is configured in a cylindrical pipe shape to minimise light collection deterioration. The CsI(Tl) crystal consists of a rectangular part and a semicylindrical scintillation part as a light reflector to increase light gathering. Compared with a PhosWatch detector, the final optimized detector geometry showed 15 improvement in the energy resolution of a 131mXe 129.4keV conversion electron peak. The predicted beta-gamma coincidence efficiencies of xenon radioisotopes have also been improved accordingly. Copyright © 2011 Weihua Zhang et al.