System Selection Guide

Radioactive decay occurs randomly in time, so the measurement of the number of events detected in a given time period is never exact, but represents an average value with some uncertainty. Better average values can be obtained by acquiring data over longer time periods.

Neutrons have mass but no electrical charge. Because of this they cannot directly produce ionization in a detector, and therefore cannot be directly detected. This means that neutron detectors must rely upon a conversion process where an incident neutron interacts with a nucleus to produce a secondary charged particle. These charged particles are then directly detected and from them the presence of neutrons is deduced.

The choice of a particular detector type for an application depends upon the X-ray or gamma energy range of interest and the application’s resolution and efficiency requirements.

Mirion offers two types of silicon charged particle detectors to cover a wide range of applications.