Automatic Determination of the Energy Pulse-height Relationship in NaI(TI) Spectra
Lee, M.S.;
ABSTRACT
As the pulse heights from a NaI(Tl) detector vary with the temperature of the measuring environment a significant change in temperature may affect the energy calibration of the spectrometer. The auto-adjustment of the channel corresponding to a pulse heights can be achieved by introducing an external reference source to compensate the temperature dependency of pulse heights, but unfavorable increases of the Compton continuum are caused due to the external source. In this study, the total absorption peaks dominant in the typical environmental gamma spectrum-239 keV from $^{212}Pb$, 351 keV from $^{214}Pb$, 1460 keV from $^{40}K$ and 2614 keV from $^{208}Tl$ for examples - were used as reference in the correction of energy calibration. With these peaks, the program to calibrate the energy of the s spectrum was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic language. The program developed here was applied to the environmental spectra measured at intervals of 30 minutes in the temperature range of from $-20^{circ}C$ to $10^{circ}C$ to demonstrate the validity and applicability. As a result of the test, the correction scheme appeared to be effective in the temperature changes encountered in the usual environment.