Lecture No: 10

Course Title: Nuclear Analytical Techniques

Course Code: CHM-604

Radiation Detection and Measurement Instruments

 4. Scintillation Methods

o Introduction
The phenomenon of formation of fluorescence due to excitation by radioactivity is known as ‘
“scintillation”. The instrument which measure scintillation is known as scintillation counter.

A scintillation counter is an instrument for detecting and measuring ionizing radiations like
alpha(α) rays, beta (β) rays, gamma (γ) rays. Scintillation is the most sensitive and versatile
technique for the detection and quantification of radioactivity. The modern electronic scintillation
counter was invented in 1944 by Sir Samuel Curran.

o Structure of Scintillation Counter

The scintillation counter has mainly three parts:

 Scintillator
It consists of a scintillator which generates photons in response to incident radiation. Scintillator
consists of a transparent crystal, usually a phosphor, plastic or organic liquid that should have
following characteristics:
o Available in proper form.
o High efficiency
o Transparent to light
o Suitable value of refractive index
o High resolving power
o Stable under experimental conditions.
 Photomultiplier tube (PMT)

A sensitive photomultiplier tube (PMT) which converts the light to an electrical signal and
electronics to process this signal. About ten dynodes which are specially designed and properly
positioned, for automatic focusing of electrons (called dynodes). Each dynode performs two
functions :

(1) collection of photoelectrons from previous dynode

(2) emission of low energy electrons

The potential of the dynodes is kept in the increasing order as we move from cathode to anode.

 Counter
It measures the voltage of potential drop created by the electrons.

o Principle
When a gamma photon is partially or totally absorbed in the scintillation crystal, at least one fast
electron is liberated (photoelectron, Compton electron or pair production electron). The electron
causes ionization and excitation along, its path in the crystal. When the excited atoms return to
their ground state, they emit light photons, the number being proportional to the gamma photon
energy that is absorbed by the crystal.
o Working
The radiations are allowed to enter the scintillator through a window made of Pyrex-glass. When
high energy radiations strike the crystal, short duration scintillations are emitted. The photons of
light emitted by the scintillator, are made to strike the photo sensitive cathode of photomultiplier
tube. The photoelectrons emitted from cathode, are directed towards 1st dynode that gives rise to
secondary emission of electrons. The secondary electrons, emitted from the surface of 1st dynode,
get accelerated towards 2nd dynode.(at higher potential in comparison to 1st). This process repeats
up to the last dynode and the electrons get much more multiplied in number. A high energy pulse
is delivered to the counting device through the anode (also called collector of PM tube). The
electric pulse from the PM tube, is amplified and is then delivered to the electronic counting device,
through a discriminator (that removes the undesired noise pulses).
o Types of scintillation counter
There are two types of scintillation counter:

 Solid or external scintillation counter

 Liquid or internal scintillation counter
 Solid or external scintillation counter

In solid scintillation counting the sample is placed adjacent to a solid fluor (Zn α-emitters,
anthracene for β-emitters, NaI for γ-emitters). Solid scintillation counting is particularly useful for
gamma emitting isotopes. This is because they can penetrate the fluor. The counters can be small
handheld devices with the fluor attached to the photomultiplier tube or larger bench-top machines
with a well-shaped fluor designed to automatically count many samples.

 Liquid or internal scintillation counter

In liquid scintillation counting, the sample is mixed with a scintillation fluid containing a solvent
and one or more dissolved fluors. This method is particularly useful in quantifying weak b-emitters
such as 3H, 14C and 35S, which are frequently used in biological work. Scintillation fluids are called
‘cocktails’ because there are different formulations, made up of a solvent (such as Toulene) &
fluors such as 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO), 1,4-bis(5- phenyloxazol-2-yl)benzene (nicknamed
POPOP, or 2-(40 -t-butylphenyl)-5-(400-bi-phenyl)-1,3,4-oxydiazole (butyl-PBD).
 Difference between solid and liquid scintillation counter
Solid Scintillation Counter Liquid Scintillation Counter
It is a radiation detector which includes a It is a instrument for determining activity of a
Scintillation crystal to detect radiation and liquid sample.
produces light pulses.
Useful for gamma (γ) emitting isotopes Useful for quantifying alpha (α) and weak
because of high density and high atomic beta (β) emitters such as 3H, 32P, 35S
number of the crystals used such as 14C, 35S
Mostly scintillator used are inorganic Here, it can be either liquid (organic solvents)
scintillators or organic scintillators. or solid form (plastics)

o Applications

 Scintillation Counters are widely used in radioactive contamination, radiation survey meters,
radiometric assay, nuclear plant safety and medical imaging, that are used to measure
radiation.

 There are several counters of mounted on helicopters and some pickup trucks for rapid
response in case of a security situation due to radioactive waste or dirty bombs.

 Scintillation counters designed for weighbridge applications, freight terminals, scrap metal
yards, border security, contamination monitoring of nuclear waste and ports.
  It is widely used in Screening technologies, In vivo and ELISA alternative technologies,
cancer research, epigenetics and Cellular research.

 It also has its applications in Protein interaction and detection, academic research and
Pharmaceutical.

 Liquid Scintillation Counter is a type of scintillation counter that is used for measuring the
beta emission from the nuclides.

o Advantages
 The rapidity of fluorescence decay (10-9 s), which, when compared to dead time in Gieger-
Muller tube (10-4 s), which means much higher count rates are possible.

 Much higher counting efficiencies particularly for low energy β-emitters; over 50%
efficiency is routine in scintillation counting and efficiency can rise to over 90% for high
energy emitters. This is partly due to the fact that the negatrons do not have to travel
through air or pass through an end-window of a Geiger-Muller tube but interact directly
with the fluor; energy loss before the event that is counted is therefore minimal.

 The ability to accommodate samples of any type, including liquids, solids, suspensions and
gels.

 The general ease of sample preparation.

 The ability to count separately different isotopes in the same sample, which means dual
labelling experiments can be carried out.

 Scintillation counters are highly automated, hundreds of samples can be counted

automatically and built-in computer facilities carry out many forms of data analysis, such
as efficiency correction, graph plotting, radioimmunoassay calculations, etc.

o Disadvantages

 The cost per sample of scintillation counting is not insignificant; however, other factors
including versatility, sensitivity, ease and accuracy outweigh this factor for most
applications.
 At the high voltages applied to the photomultiplier, electronic events occur in the system
that are independent of radioactivity but contribute to a high background count. This is
referred to as photomultiplier noise and can be partially reduced by cooling the
photomultipliers.

 Since the temperature affects counting efficiency, cooling also presents a controlled
temperature for counting, which may be useful.

 Low noise multipliers however have been designed to provide greater temperature stability
in ambient temperature systems.

 Also, the use of pulse height analyzer can be set so as to reject, electronically, most of the
noise pulses that are of low energy. The disadvantage here is that this also rejects the low
energy pulses resulting from low energy radioactivity (e.g. 3 H).

 Another method of reducing noise, which is incorporated into most scintillation counters
is to use coincidence counting. In this system two photomultipliers are used.