Modeling of germanium detector and its sourceless calibration

Abstract

The paper describes the procedure of adapting a coaxial high-precision germanium detector to a device with numerical calibration. The procedure includes the determination of detector dimensions and establishing the corresponding model of the system. In order to achieve a successful calibration of the system without the usage of standard sources, Monte Carlo simulations were performed to determine its efficiency and pulse-height response function. A detailed Monte Carlo model was developed using the MCNP-5.0 code. The obtained results have indicated that this method represents a valuable tool for the quantitative uncertainty analysis of radiation spectrometers and gamma-ray detector calibration, thus minimizing the need for the deployment of radioactive sources.

Keywords

• gamma-ray spectrometry
• HPGe modeling
• sourceless calibration
• Monte Carlo method