Method and apparatus for the automatic stabilization of drift in radiation measurements

摘要

A method and apparatus for automatically stabilizing drift in radiation measurements which employ a detector whose pulse amplitude corresponds to the energy absorbed by the detector, involves the use of a peak produced in the pulse amplitude spectrum by individual electrons. The peak is at the low energy end of the spectrum and is drift stable. It can be produced by for example a direct or indirect light source such as a light emitting diode, by the phosphorescence of e.g. a sodium iodide crystal used as a scintillation crystal in nuclear radiation measurement, or by spontaneous surface emission within the detector, which is suitably a photomultiplier. The apparatus includes a determination device to determine the position of the drift stable peak and a control device to control the detector in response to the output of the determination device.