Remote detection of alpha radiation source by optical method

Abstract

To solve the problem that the conventional detection technique of alpha radiation sources is unable to achieve remote detection and not suitable for detecting alpha radiation sources with complex morphology, remote detection of alpha radiation sources by measuring the fluorescence induced by the interaction between alpha particles and nitrogen molecules is investigated in this paper. In dark conditions, nitrogen fluorescence is collected by the optical system with an aperture of 50 mm and detected by a photomultiplier tube working in the photon counting mode. The alpha radiation source with total activity of 7.3 kBq and unit area activity of 49 Bq/cm² can be detected within 30 s at a distance of 0.6 m. The detection limit of the alpha radiation source detection system proposed in this paper ranks among the top in the related research fields.

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