A quantitative analysis on the effect of crystal parameters on full energy peak efficiency of a coaxial high purity Germanium detector for the energy range 50 keV-2.5 MeV

Abstract

High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors are essential instruments in gamma-ray spectrometry, offering high sensitivity and exceptional energy resolution. The full-energy-peak (FEP) efficiency is a critical parameter that influences the accuracy of activity concentration measurements of radionuclides. This study examines the FEP efficiency of a coaxial HPGe detector, focusing on variations in crystal length, crystal radius, and crystal hole dimensions. For varying crystal lengths, the efficiency values show negligible differences at low energy (50 keV) but significant increases at higher energies, indicating that longer crystal lengths enhance efficiency. Similarly, the efficiency increases with larger crystal radii across all energy levels suggesting substantial efficiency gains even at low energies. However, variations in crystal hole radius and depth, exhibit minimal impact on FEP efficiency across all tested energy levels. These findings highlight that optimizing crystal length and radius is more crucial for changing detector efficiency compared to modifying hole dimensions, providing valuable insights for optimizing Monte Carlo models and detector design. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd