Co60 Gamma spectrum

Cobalt 60
Co60 is a common calibration source found in many laboratories, it is synthetically produced by
neutron activation of Co59, and has a half life of 5.27 years. The gamma spectrum has two
significant peaks, one at 1173.2 KeV and another at 1332.5 KeV. Most good scintillation
detectors should have adequate resolution to separate the two peaks.
The data for the spectrum below, was kindly provided by 'happynewgeiger' the peak to the left of
the Compton scatter, is most likely Pb X-rays from the shielding, and not directly from the Cobalt
source itself.
https://www.gammaspectacular.com/blue/Co-60-gamma-spectrum
Caesium-137 is a man-made radioactive isotope with a half-life of 32 years. It decays via β decay into
barium-137. Of these decays 94.6 % lead to a metastable excited state of barium, Ba-137m, which passes
into the ground state with a half-life of 156 s, whereby a γ quantum of 661.6 keV is emitted. The remaining
5.4 % lead directly to the ground state of barium. The maximum energies of the emitted electrons are
513.97 keV and 1175.6 keV.
Emission of a 661.6 keV γ quantum is not the only way metastable barium gives off its energy. In other
cases it can transfer its energy to an electron of the 1s shell of its atomic shell ("internal conversion"). The
electrons than have an energy of 625.67 keV, that is the difference between the excitation energy of barium
and the electron's binding energy. In contrast to beta decay, there is no continuum of the electron energy
because no third particle is involved. The hole in the 1s shell is replenished from higher shells. This
process gives rise to emission of the characteristic X radiation of barium, particularly of the Kα line at 32.19
keV.
Because of the monoenergetic γ line at 661.6 keV, this isotope is well suited for studying the Compton
effect and for energy calibration.
Depending on the cover of the preparation, the Kα conversion line at 32.19 keV is also visible and can be
used for energy calibration, too. The Cs/Ba-137 isotope generator (559 815) contains Cs-137 as a salt from
which Ba-137m can be washed out. Because of the low mass of the covering plastic housing, this source
exhibits a distinct line at 32.19 keV and a very weak backscatter peak even without washing the barium
out. By contrast, the mixed preparation (559 84) exhibits a distinct backscatter peak because of the
aluminum holder but no Kα conversion line. In addition Am-241 is contained, whose 59.54 keV line can also
be used for calibration.
γ spectrum of Cs-137, preparation with little backscattering and with K α line

https://www.ld-didactic.de/software/524221en/Content/Appendix/Cs137.htm
Cobalt-60 is a man-made isotope with a half-life of 5.27 years. It decays emitting an electron with a
maximum energy of 318 keV (β decay) into an excited state of the stable nickel-60. From this state a
transition into another excited state takes place with emission of a 1173 keV γ quantum, then the ground
state is reached whereby a γ quantum of 1333 keV is emitted.
The jacket of the preparation used in the experiments absorbs the β particles. Therefore only γ quanta can
be observed.
When doing γ spectroscopy with a scintillation counter, keep in mind that the Compton edge of the line with
the higher energy 1333 keV is at 1119 keV, i.e. it is located in the low-energy edge of the second line at
1173 keV and distorts its shape.

γ spectrum of Co-60

https://www.ld-didactic.de/software/524221en/Content/Appendix/Co60.htm
Scintillation Detector
A scintillation detector  is often portable. The scintillation detector  is not as
versatile as the GM meter, although it can be used to look
for contamination  from some radioactive materials. The
scintillation detector 's active portion for detecting radioactivity  is a solid
crystal (that is the scintillator) with which the radioactive emission must
interact. This essentially limits use of the  detector  to gamma rays  and high-
energy beta particles since medium- and low-energy  beta particles cannot
penetrate the crystal and, therefore, cannot interact.

Scintillators can be made in different sizes, and the thickness of the

scintillator determines its ability to absorb and detect certain radiation
emissions. A thin scintillator is an excellent choice for low-energy  gamma
rays  and high-energy beta particles. The ray or particle will be absorbed
within the thin scintillator and the light produced by this interaction will be
able to pass through the remaining thickness to allow the gamma ray to be
detected. A high-energy gamma ray is likely to pass right through the thin
scintillator without interacting.

A thick scintillator is the choice for radionuclides emitting high-

energy gamma rays . This scintillator is thick enough to absorb the gamma
ray but not too thick to prevent the light that is produced from being
detected. A thick scintillator is not very good for low-energy  gamma rays ;
they will interact but the scintillator is too thick and will absorb the light that
is produced before it can be detected.

https://www.radiationanswers.org/radiation-introduction/detecting-measuring/scintillation.html
The Multi-Channel Analyser (MCA) is a circuit which is capable of setting up a large number of
individual windows to look at a complete spectrum in one go. The MCA might consist of 1024
individual windows for example and the computer might consist of a personal computer which
can acquire information simultaneously from each window and display it as an energy spectrum.
The computer generally contains software which allows us to manipulate the resultant
information in a variety of ways.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Basic_Physics_of_Nuclear_Medicine/Scintillation_Detectors#Scintillati
on_Spectrometer
Background readings in Ann
Arbor, MI

For a class in 2005, with no radioactive sources within range, we measured a long (30 minutes
+) reading with a high-purity germanium (HPGe) gamma-ray detector system. We then identified
the source of each peak. The spectrum is shown in the figure. Click it for the identifications.
HPGe detectors are known for excellent resolutions, and as you can see, many peaks are clearly
visible. Each one represents a specific nuclear reaction. Some major gamma-rays are
highlighted on the figure. Thallium-208 is a decay-product of Thorium-232, which is naturally
present in soil. Protactinium-234 results from the natural alpha-decay of Uranium-238.
Potassium-40 is found all around, including in bananas and in salt-substitutes at the grocery
store.
https://whatisnuclear.com/radioactivity.html
Environmental radiation background due to potassium-40 

It is important to realize that low-activity measurements are always performed in the

presence of the environmental radiation background due to trace radioactive
elements such as potassium-40 produced in upper atmosphere by cosmic-ray
interactions. We measured the gamma ray spectrum with the NaI(Tl) detector (Solon
Technologies 6S4/2, diameter 1.5") connected to DDC-10, without any radioactive
source present in the vicinity of the detector. The gamma ray line at 1.46 MeV, which
is a characteristic of 40K decay, was clearly seen after one hour measurement. 
http://www.skutek.com/NaI.htm

Background Spectrum
A small amount of ionizing radiation is always present in the surroundings. This
radiation comes from many sources such as cosmic ray interactions with the
atmosphere, radioactive minerals in the soil and rocks, Radon gas and fallout from
nuclear weapons testing. To see what background sources could be identified with
this setup, a gamma-ray spectrum was made with no source in front of the detector.
This background radiation can be significant when measuring the spectra of weak
radiation sources like most of the ones described here. The background spectrum
was thus subtracted from most of the other spectra described so background
readings would not interfere with the desired data.

The background gamma-ray spectrum is shown below. As with all the other
spectra presented here, four 0.093" thick Plexiglass sheets were placed below the
detector. This ensured that the background measurement would be consistent with
that contributing to the other spectra.
A distinct peak can be seen at 1461 keV due to Potassium 40. A small percentage
of all naturally occuring Potassium is in the form of K-40 so Potassium is slightly
radioactive. It is present in the soil, in construction materials such as concrete and
in the glass used to make the detector. These sources are probably the source of the
peak seen here. The other labelled peaks in the spectrum are due to Radon daughter
products even though a recent Radon test detected only 0.2 pCi/liter in the test
area. This is lower than the "typical" outdoor reading of 0.4 pCi/liter and well
below the "take action" level of 4 pCi/liter.

http://www.randomuseless.info/spectra/results/background/index.html