Appl. Radiat. Isot. Vol. 48, No. 8, pp.

1125 1126, 1997

'~ 1997 ElsevierScience Ltd. All rights reserved
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On Self-attenuation Corrections in
Gamma-ray Spectrometry
J. P. B O L I V A R I, M. G A R C I A
" -LEON
" 2, a n d R. G A R C i A - T E N O R I O 3 ?

)Departamento Fisica Aplicada, E.P.S. La Rfibida, Universidad de Huelva, 21819-Palos de la

Frontera, Huelva, Spain, 2National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Division of Radioecology,
Isozaki 3609, Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki, 311-12, Japan and SDepartamento Fisica Aplicada, ETS
Arquitectura, Universidad de Sevilla, Avda, Reina Mercedes s/n, 41012, Sevilla, Spain

(Received 19 February 1997)

In this paper we discuss and justify the dependence on the sample density and gamma energy of the
self-attenuation correction factor, f, in the transmission method for the full energy peak etficiency
calibration of Ge detectors. It is suggested as a method for the direct computing of f i n the case that the
sample composition is known. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd

Introduction (equation (1)) will be justified from a theoretical point

of view in this paper. Additionally, we find more suit-
Recently (Bolivar et al., 1994) we proposed a method
able dependencies on E of the parameters a and b.
for gamma-ray efficiency calibration of coaxial H P G e
detectors which generalizes the transmission method
of Cutshall et al. (1983). The method, originally Density Dependence
designed for soil samples, is useful for any kind of
In the paper by Joshi (1989), f is defined as
sample which can be confined to a fixed cylindrical
geometry. i - - e -(~,:, ~,~,)L l--e-"
The self-attenuation correction factor, f , was f= (~l~Ps--~lcp¢)L - ~ (3)
experimentally determined for a cylindrical sample
with x = q(p, - pc)L. L is the height of the cylinder
geometry with a H P G e detector, 1.88 keV resolution
used as sample container, q5 and qc are the mass
and 14% relative efficiency. A wide set of f
attenuation coefficients for the real and the standard
values were determined for a sample density interval
sample, respectively. At a given energy they can be
from 0.6 to !.7 g/cm 3 and an energy range of
considered independent of the type of soil (Harbottle,
150-1500 keV. For that, we carried out several
1993) for E > 50 keV. Thus q$ = r/c = q.
transmission experiments with gamma-rays from
Equation (3) can be expanded for x. On the other
226Ra,lS7Cs and ~°Co point sources passing through
hand, under our working conditions (Bolivar et al.,
sediment samples of different densities.
1994) usually x << 1 for most of the energy values.
f w a s found to depend on the density, p,, of the soil
Therefore, as a first approximation we can neglect the
sample as:
higher-order terms in the expansion and f becomes
f = ae -h", (1) .3~ v qpcL qpsL
f"~ !-- ~ -~e- 2 =e 2 e _, =ae ~" (4)
where a and b are parameters which, after simple
fitting, were found to depend on E=, as
which is identical to equation (1), with
a = 1 + 8.35E;7 °'492 (2a) qPcL
a=e~-
and
b = 3.38E:7 °'423 (2b) b = '7-b-L (5)
2
with E= expressed in keV and b in g-~.cm 3. The
dependence of the correction factor on the density The approximation described is essentially correct.
Indeed equations (3) and (4) differ by less than 2 %
*Present address: Facultad de Fisica. Universidad de for an extreme difference of I g/cm 3 in the densities
Sevilla. Apdo 1065, 41080-Sevilla, Spain. of the standard and calibration samples at
fTo whom all correspondence should be addressed. E. = 150 keV, the least favorable case.

1125
 1126 J.P. Bolivar et al.
Table I. Values of f at different densities and energies determined experimentally from equations (7), (8) and (I),
compared with the theoretical ones (shown betweenbrackets) obtained from equations (3) and (6). Energiesare expressed
in keV and densities in g/cm3
E.~p 150 keV 400 keV
0.5 g/cm~ 1.427 (I.424) 1.267 (I.270)
0.8 g/cm~ 1.279 (1.270) 1.177 (I.176)
1.1 g/cm~ 1.148 (1.137) 1.091 (I.092)
1.4 g/cm' 1.029 (1.021) 1.012 (I.016)
1.7 g/cm' 0.923 (0.921) 0.938 (0.944)
2.0 g/cm' 0.827 (0.833) 0.870 (0.881)
Under our working conditions (Bolivar et al.,
1994) L = 5 cm and Pc = 1.46 g/cm 3. Thus, a and b
can be calculated with equation (5) for each E;, once
the values of the mass attenuation coefficients at
different energies are known.
Energy Dependence
Data concerning the values of r/ at different
energies for concrete and SiO2 have been taken from
a compilation made by Hubell (1982). The values are
similar for E > 150 keV. Also, Harbottle (1993),
using soils of different types, showed that for
E. > 150 keV, r/does not depend very much on the
soil composition at a given energy and that they agree
with the values compiled by Hubell (1982).
We can now compare the f estimations with
equations (1) and (2) to the theorerical values from
equation (3). The mass attenuation coefficients used
are those from the above-mentioned tabulations,
which, of course, depend on E . The results are that
the relative differences in f , range from 2 to 10%
within an energy interval from 150 to 2000 keV, and
a density interval from 0.5 to 2.0 g/cm 3. These
deviations are quite acceptable for environmental
work.
However, this analysis does suggest that a better
description of the dependence of a and b on E. will
improve the results. Indeed, we have found for the
energy range of interest that the values of )7 (Hubell,
1982) depend very approximately on E as:
r / = (0.335 + 0.002)exp[ - (0.03486
+ 0.00009)(In E02]
According to equation (5) both In a and b could be
expressed by similar expressions and it can be shown
from the experimental results obtained previously
(Bolivar et al., 1994) that
In a = (1.33 + 0.13)exp[ - (0.0361
4- 0.0021)(Ln E:.)2] (7)
b = (0.855 4- 0.063)exp[ - (0.0341
4- 0.0025)(1n E:.)2] (8)
The goodness of this new approach is clear. Now the
relative difference between the theory and the
empirical fittings are less than 2% for the energy and
density ranges of interest, as is shown in Table 1.
700 keV 1000 keV 1500 keV
1.201 (I.204) 1.166 (1.169) 1.131 (I.138)
1.132 (1.135) 1.108 (I.I 12) 1.086 (1.091)
1.067 (1.071) 1.054 (1.059) 1.042 (1.049)
1.005 (1.011) 1.002 (1.007) 0.999 (I.006)
0.948 (0.956) 0.953 (0.963) 0.959 (0.969)
0.893 (0.905) 0.906 (0.919) 0.920 (0.933)
As a consequence we can note that a and b could
be calculated if the composition of the sample is
known, provided that equation (5) is valid in our
working conditions. Indeed, according to the Bragg
sum rule the mass attenuation coefficient of a
complex material of n components is q = _r w, q,, ~/,
being the mass attenuation coefficient of the
component i which is present in the material" at a
weight ratio w,; thus, a and b are inmediately
available for each value of E..
Conclusions
The dependence of the self-attenuation correction
factor, f , in our generalized transmission method on
the sample density has been justified theoretically. A
careful analysis of the energy dependence of the mass
attenuation coefficient led us to more exact
expressions for the a and b parameters in terms of
which, f is formulated. It is also suggested that the
mathematical expresions constructed for the co-
efficients a and b of f can be used for a direct
calculation of the efficiency curve, provided the
composition of the sample is known.
Acknowledgements--This work has been partially supported
by ENRESA and Junta de Andalucia. M.Garcia-Le6n
acknowledges the finantial support of the Science and
Technology Agency of Japan for a stay at NIRS, during
which this paper was finalized.
References
(6) Bolivar J. P., GarciaoTenorio R. and Garcia-Leon M. (1994)
A generalized transmission method for gamma-efficiency
determinations in soil samples. Nuclear Geophysics 8,
485-492.
Cutshall N. H., Larsen I. L. and Olsen C. R. (1983) Direct
analysis of -'~°Pb in sediment samples: selfabsorption
corrections. Nuclear Instruments and Methods A206,
309-312.
Joshi S. R. (1989) Determination of 24~Am in sediments by
direct counting of low-energy photons. International
Journal Applied Radiation Instruments, Part A, Applied
Radiation and Isotopes 40, 691-699.
Harbottle G. (1993) A Marinelli beaker modified for easier
mathematical modelling for selfabsorption in environ-
mental radioactivity measurements. Radioactivity and
Radiochemistry 4, 20-31.
Hubell J. M. (1982) Photon mass attenuation and
energy-absorption coefficients from 1 to 20 MeV. Applied
Radiation and Isotopes 33, 1269-1277.