Simultaneous Measurement of Alpha and Beta Particles Using Dual-Type Fiber-Optic Radiation Sensor

Abstract

In this study, we fabricated a dual-type fiber-optic radiation sensor (DFORS) system using a spectroscopic technique, for simultaneous and separate measurement of alpha and beta particles. The DFORS is composed of a sensing probe, plastic optical fiber (POF), photomultiplier tube (PMT)-amplifier system, and multichannel analyzer (MCA). A dual scintillator consisting of a ZnS(Ag) film and a CaF2(Eu) crystal was used for alpha and beta spectroscopy as a sensing probe. Po-210 and Sr-90 were used as alpha and beta emitters, respectively, and alpha and beta energy spectra were measured using the proposed DFORS system to discriminate species of the radioisotopes emitting alpha or beta particles. From the experimental results, we demonstrated that the small-sized, flexible, and insertable DFORS system could discriminate the alpha and beta events successfully using the spectral information of each radiation sources.