Open AccessAutomated multispectra alpha spectrometer and data reduction system
Author(s) -
R.C. Hochel
Publication year - 1975
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/4083837
Subject(s) - spectrum analyzer , plutonium , data reduction , spectrometer , software , computer science , detector , calibration , alpha particle , reduction (mathematics) , computer hardware , physics , nuclear physics , optics , operating system , telecommunications , quantum mechanics , data mining , geometry , mathematics
A complete hardware and software package for the accumulation and rapid analysis of multiple alpha pulse height spectra has been developed. The system utilizes a 4096-channel analyzer capable of accepting up to sixteen inputs from solid-state surface barrier detectors via mixer-router modules. The analyzer is interfaced to a desk-top programmable calculator and thermal line printer. A chained software package including spectrum printout, peak analysis, plutonium- 238 and plutonium-239 data reduction, and automatic energy calibration routines was written. With the chained program a complete printout, peak analysis, and plutonium data reduction of a 512-channel alpha spectrum are obtained in about three minutes with an accuracy within five percent of hand analyses. (auth