Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 490 (2002) 243–250

A hemispherical high-pressure xenon gamma radiation

spectrometer
Royal Kessick, Gary Tepper*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, 601 West Main Street, 23284-3028 Richmond,
VA 23284, USA

Received 21 November 2001; received in revised form 20 March 2002; accepted 27 March 2002

Abstract

A prototype hemispherical high-pressure xenon gamma radiation spectrometer was designed, constructed and tested.
The detector consists of a pair of concentric hemispherical electrodes contained inside a thin-walled stainless steel
pressure dome. Detector performance parameters such as energy resolution, linearity and vibration sensitivity were
determined and compared to previous cylindrical and planar designs. Without a Frisch grid, the hemispherical detector
provides a total room temperature energy resolution of 6% @ 662 keV and is relatively insensitive to acoustic
interference. r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PACS: 29.40.Cs; 29.40.Kv

Keywords: High-pressure xenon; Hemispherical; Radiation detection

1. Introduction oped in both planar and cylindrical geometries by

A variety of field applications including envir-
onmental characterization, treaty verification and
geological exploration require gamma radiation
spectrometers that can provide stable operation
over a range of ambient conditions. Scintillation
detectors generally provide inadequate energy
resolution for these applications while high purity
germanium detectors must be maintained at
cryogenic temperatures, which is inconvenient in
the field. Radiation detectors based on highly
purified and compressed xenon have been devel-
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-804-827-4079; fax: +1-
804-828-4269.
E-mail address: gctepper@saturn.vcu.edu (G. Tepper).
0168-9002/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 8 - 9 0 0 2 ( 0 2 ) 0 1 0 0 7 - 0
several groups [1–4]. High-pressure xenon (HPXe)
detectors offer several attractive features including
a combination of relatively high-energy resolution,
large volume and thermal stability as well as
insensitivity to radiation damage that make
them particularly attractive for field applications.
Table 1 lists some of the important properties of
HPXe spectrometers. HPXe detectors are usually
operated at a xenon density near 0.6 g/cm3. At
higher densities, the energy resolution is degraded
due to the local density fluctuations normally
observed in fluids near the critical point [5].
The best energy resolution reported to date for
HPXe detectors is for a cylindrical detector with a
shielding mesh [4]. Bolotnikov and Ramsey [4]
demonstrated that, in a cylindrical geometry, it is
244 R. Kessick, G. Tepper / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 490 (2002) 243–250
Table 1
Properties of high-pressure xenon
Atomic number Z ¼ 54
Critical point 58 atm, 290 K, 1.1 g/cm3
W value 21.9 eVa
Electron drift velocity B105 cm/s (for EX2 kV/cm)
Fano factor 0.17a
Intrinsic energy resolution 0.56% @ 662 keV
a
Density dependent.
possible to compensate for the inherent grid
shielding inefficiency in order to obtain very
high-energy resolution (o2%). However, these
detectors, like the previous planar designs, are
sensitive to acoustic interference associated with
mechanical vibrations of the Frisch grid electrode.
A variety of grid designs have been tested and,
while some incremental improvements have been
realized by improving the grid rigidity and support
structure, the problem remains [6].
The function of the grid electrode is to shield the
anode from the effect of charge motion in the
ionization region. The rise time of the anode pulses
is, therefore, determined by the electron drift time
between the grid and anode electrodes rather than
the location of the ionization event and the effect
of positive ion motion is essentially eliminated. In
the absence of a grid electrode, the anode pulse rise
time and amplitude will depend on the ionization
coordinate. Rise time compensation has been
investigated as a possible approach to electro-
nically perform the function of the Frisch grid
electrode [4,7]. However, this approach introduces
additional pulse processing requirements and at
this time has not been successfully applied to
HPXe detectors.
In this paper we investigate another possible
approach toward the development of a practical
field-portable HPXe spectrometer. The hemisphe-
rical detector geometry offers some unique perfor-
mance advantages. The thin-walled hemispherical
pressure dome provides a wide field of view. For
concentric hemispherical electrodes, the electric
field magnitude drops off quickly as one over the
square of the distance from the anode electrode. In
addition, the anode electrode can, in principle, be
made arbitrarily small. The combination of these
factors suggests that a HPXe detector could be
developed in which most of the induced charge on
the anode is generated in the anode proximity
where the electric field magnitude is the strongest.
Thus, even without a Frisch grid structure,
the effect of charge (electron and ion) motion in
the weak-field region near the cathode may be
reduced. This effect was previously investigated in
a cylindrical HPXe spectrometer without a shield-
ing mesh [8]. However, very high cathode voltages
(ca. 15 kV) were required before any significant
improvement in energy resolution could be rea-
lized. The larger electric field gradient provided by
the hemispherical geometry may provide a similar
benefit, but without the need for extremely high
voltages.
2. Experimental
Fig. 1a is a photograph of the prototype
hemispherical HPXe spectrometer and Fig. 1b is
a schematic diagram illustrating the main compo-
nents of the detector. The pressure vessel consists
of a stainless steel hemisphere with a wall thickness
of approximately 0.0600 welded to a standard 600
diameter conflat flange. The electrical feed-
throughs and vacuum/fill port are welded into a
second 600 flange and a third 600 double-sided flange
is used as a spacer and to support the internal
electrode structure. The anode is a solid, 1.500
diameter stainless steel hemisphere and is sup-
ported by a 400 diameter, 0.37500 thick alumina
ceramic disc. Holes were machined into the
ceramic anode support disc for the anode and
cathode electrical feedthroughs as well as a pump
out port to evacuate the hemispherical ionization
region. The cathode electrode consists of a silver
coating deposited onto the inside surface of an
alumina ceramic hemisphere with an inner dia-
meter of 3.500 . The ceramic hemisphere is seen
prominently in the photograph of Fig. 1a.
The requirements and methodologies for achiev-
ing and maintaining the necessary xenon purity
have been addressed elsewhere and are only briefly
summarized here [9]. An ultra-high vacuum system
containing both getters and a titanium spark
purification chamber was used to purify the xenon
 R. Kessick, G. Tepper / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 490 (2002) 243–250
Fig. 1. (a) Photograph of the hemispherical HPXe spectrometer, (b) schematic diagram of the detector.
and to prepare and fill the detector. The lower
limit of the electron lifetime in xenon was
established by monitoring the duration of pulses
produced by cosmic muons using an ionization
chamber located inside the spark chamber. The
xenon purity was considered acceptable when the
lower limit of the electron lifetime exceeded 3 ms at
a density of approximately 0.5 g/cm3. The detector
was baked at 2001C for approximately 1 week
under ultra-high vacuum conditions. The detector
was then filled with the purified xenon to a density
of approximately 0.3 g/cm3 as determined by
weighing before and after. The maximum xenon
density in this prototype detector was limited by
the pressure vessel design. The double-sided
conflat flange configuration was not able to
reliably support internal pressures greater than
about 700 Psi. The flanges were used to provide
convenient access to the detector electrodes during
prototyping, but will be eliminated in future
detector generations. The effects of xenon density
on detector energy resolution have been reported
previously and will not be discussed here [10].
The data were obtained using an AmpTek 250
preamp operated at room temperature and
mounted directly to the anode. The anode
capacitance was 22 pF. The output of the pre-
amplifier was fed to an Ortec shaping amplifier
and then into a multi-channel analyzer for pulse
245
height analysis. The high voltage was supplied
using a low-noise Bertan power supply. A low pass
filter with a time constant of about 2 s was
installed directly at the cathode feedthrough for
additional power supply noise suppression.
3. Results
Fig. 2 is a typical pulse height spectrum
obtained with the detector exposed to a 137Cs
calibration source at a cathode voltage of 8 kV.
As stated previously, the xenon density was lower
than optimal resulting in the relatively large
Compton shoulder visible in Fig. 2. The total
FWHM energy resolution for the peak of Fig. 2
was about 6% @ 662 keV at a shaping time of
5 ms. The peak is not symmetric and the low energy
tailing is responsible for most of the peak width.
For example, if the energy resolution is calculated
based on two times the high-energy half width, the
resolution drops to 4%. A test pulse generator was
used to establish the base electronics noise. The
FWHM of the pulser peak was 2.2% for the
operating conditions described above.
Fig. 3a is a pulse height spectrum for the
detector exposed to a 133Ba source and Fig. 3b is
a pulse height spectrum for a 22Na source under
the same detector conditions as Fig. 2. The
246 R. Kessick, G. Tepper / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 490 (2002) 243–250

1400

1200

1000

800
Counts

600

400

200

0
100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600
Channel Number
137
Fig. 2. Pulse height spectrum of a Cs calibration source at a cathode voltage of 8 kV.

detector energy resolution was sufficient to clearly
resolve the two low energy peaks in the 133Ba
spectrum. However, due to the relatively low
xenon density, the high-energy peak in the 22Na
spectrum is not clearly resolved.
Fig. 4 is a plot of gamma energy versus channel
number. The data were obtained during a single
run with the detector simultaneously exposed to
137
Cs, 22Na and 133Ba sources and a cathode
voltage of 8 kV. This plot demonstrates that the
detector output pulse height is linearly dependent
on energy as is expected.
The effect of the electric field strength on the
charge collection was also investigated. Fig. 5 is a
plot of the 137Cs peak channel number versus
cathode voltage from approximately 5 to 9 kV
at a shaping time of 5 ms. As can be seen in the
figure, the peak channel number (which is a
measure of the total collected charge) increases
linearly with applied voltage and appears to begin
 R. Kessick, G. Tepper / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 490 (2002) 243–250 247

20000 6000

18000
5000
16000

14000
4000
12000

Counts
Counts

10000 3000

8000

2000
6000

4000
1000

2000

0 0
100 150 200 250 300 350 100 300 500 700
(a) Channel Number (b) Channel Number
133 22
Fig. 3. Pulse height spectrum of (a) Ba and (b) Na.

to saturate at a cathode voltage of 9 kV. It was
not possible to probe higher voltages because of
limitations in the current feedthrough design.
Fig. 6 is a plot of the electric field magnitude
versus radius for several applied cathode voltages.
At a cathode voltage of 8 kV, the electric field
magnitude ranges from a high of about 8 kV/cm at
the anode to a low of about 1.5 kV/cm at the
cathode electrode.
4. Discussion
The principal goal of this work was to investi-
gate the possibility of developing a high resolution,
room temperature radiation spectrometer for field
applications based on hemispherical HPXe detec-
tors. The hemispherical geometry provides a very
wide field of view as well as an excellent structural
design for containing the relatively high internal
xenon pressures. Without a Frisch grid the
prototype hemispherical HPXe detector provides
a room temperature energy resolution of approxi-
mately 6% @ 662 keV. This resolution is about a
factor of three worse than the best energy
resolution reported for HPXe detectors incorpor-
ating a shielding mesh, and is more typical of the
best results reported for cylindrical detectors
without a shielding mesh [4,7,8].
Therefore, although the hemispherical geometry
appears promising, the resolution of our prototype
is still about a factor of 2 or 3 worser than is
necessary to offer a competitive advantage. How-
ever, we believe that there is significant room for
further optimization. Specifically, at this time, only
one detector geometry (anode and cathode dia-
meter) was tested and the xenon density was less
than optimal. Furthermore, the prototype detector
was only designed to operate reliably at cathode
voltages less than or equal to 8 kV and, based on
the results of Fig. 5, there is good reason to believe
that the energy resolution could be improved by
operating at higher cathode voltages. In the
hemispherical geometry, the electric field drops
248 R. Kessick, G. Tepper / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 490 (2002) 243–250

1400

1200

1000
Gamma Energy (keV)

800

600

400

200

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Channel Number
Fig. 4. Gamma energy versus channel number.

364

362

360

358
Channel Number

356

354

352

350

348

346

344

342
4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000
Volts
Fig. 5. Peak channel number versus cathode voltage.
 R. Kessick, G. Tepper / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 490 (2002) 243–250 249

10.000

9.000
10kV

8.000

7.000
Electric Field Magnitude (kV/cm)

8kV

6.000

5.000
6kV
4.000

3.000

2.000

1.000

0.000
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Radius (cm)
Fig. 6. The electric field distribution for four different cathode voltages. The operational voltage (8 kV) is indicated as the solid line.

off rapidly, as 1=r2 ; resulting in the need for
relatively high cathode voltages in order to sustain
an acceptable field magnitude at all locations
within the ionization region. However, at the
same time, the distance between the anode and
cathode electrodes must be large enough to
provide adequate detection efficiency for gamma
radiation. One solution to this problem is to
increase the anode diameter [3]. Because the
volume of a hemisphere is proportional to r3 ; the
anode electrode occupies a negligible portion of
the total ionization volume, even at relatively large
diameters. However, for a given cathode diameter,
the minimum voltage required between the anode
and cathode electrodes decreases with increasing
anode diameter. Therefore, in a hemispherical
geometry, it is possible to reduce the required
detector voltage without significantly decreasing
the detector volume simply by increasing the
anode diameter. However, the effect of the anode
diameter on the energy resolution is not clear.
Increasing the anode diameter decreases the effect
of the 1=r2 electric field concentration and, there-
fore, may be problematic in terms of the detector
energy resolution. Further research is required in
order to optimize the detector geometry to provide
the best combination of energy resolution, effi-
ciency and voltage requirements.
The electron drift velocity in HPXe saturates at
approximately 105 cm/s for electric fields greater
than 2 kV/cm [11,12]. According to Fig. 6, at a
cathode voltage of 8 kV, the electric field
magnitude is greater than 2 kV/cm over more than
90% of the drift region. Therefore, despite the fact
that the electric field magnitude is increasing
rapidly as the electrons approach the anode, the
electron drift velocity will be relatively constant
and equal to the saturation value of 105 cm/s.
250 R. Kessick, G. Tepper / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 490 (2002) 243–250
A shaping time of 5 ms provided the best energy
resolution for the data presented in Figs. 2 and 3.
However, electrons drift a distance of about 0.5 cm
in 5 ms, and this is only about 15 of the cathode-to-
anode distance. Normally, it is preferable to use an
integration time that is long compared to the
maximum drift time of the charge carriers. Shorter
integration times lead to ballistic deficit and a
reduced energy resolution particularly in detectors
with a variation in the charge collection time. Our
results indicate that, for this particular detector
geometry, the best energy resolution is achieved by
using a shaping time much less than would be
expected based on the maximum electron drift
time.
The primary problem with previous HPXe
detectors containing a shielding grid is acoustic
sensitivity caused by mechanical vibrations of the
Frisch grid structure. This vibration sensitivity is
particularly problematic in cylindrical detectors
because of the need to extend the grid along the
entire length of the cylinder. We qualitatively
compared the acoustic sensitivity of the hemisphe-
rical design to that of our previous planar and
cylindrical detectors containing a shielding grid.
The preamplifier output was monitored during
exposure to common sources of acoustic inter-
ference including foot traffic, voices and physical
handling of the detector and, as expected, due to
the elimination of the Frisch grid electrode, the
new hemispherical detector exhibited superior
vibration resistance.
Finally, because in a hemispherical geometry the
anode electrode can, in principle, be made
arbitrarily small, it should also be possible to
develop a hemispherical detector containing a very
small shielding mesh. A small hemispherical mesh
is expected to be far less susceptible to the kind of
mechanical vibrations that have plagued the
elongated mesh designs of cylindrical HPXe
spectrometers. We are currently modifying our
prototype hemispherical detector to include alter-
native anode diameters as well as a shielding
mesh and will report these results in a future
publication.
5. Conclusions
A new hemispherical high-pressure xenon gam-
ma radiation spectrometer was designed, built and
tested. Without a shielding grid or pulse shape
analysis the detector provided a total room
temperature energy resolution of approximately
6% @ 662 keV. The elimination of the vibration-
sensitive grid electrode resulted in a significant
improvement in the detector performance during
the kind of acoustic disturbances normally en-
countered in field applications. Our results suggest
that, with additional optimization, hemispherical
high-pressure xenon detectors may find use in a
variety of field applications requiring rugged,
portable, instruments that operate at room tem-
perature and without the need for sophisticated
post-data processing.
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