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Experimental Setup

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On the Direct Detection of 229m Th

Part of the book series: Springer Theses ((Springer Theses))

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Abstract

The experiments performed within the scope of this thesis were aiming for a first direct detection and unambiguous identification of the isomeric decay of \(^{229\mathrm {m}}\)Th. It was known from theory that several competing decay channels of \(^{229\mathrm {m}}\)Th exist (Strizhov VF, Tkalya EV in Sov Phys JETP 72:387, 1991, [1]), (Karpeshin FF, Trzhaskovskaya MB in Phys Rev C 76:054313, 2007, [2]) (see Sect. 2.2). These include the photonic decay, decay via internal conversion (IC), decay via electronic bridge processes (EB) as well as \(\alpha \) decay (Strizhov VF, Tkalya EV in Sov Phys JETP 72:387, 1991, [1]), (Dykhne AM et al in JETP Lett 64:345–349, 1996, [3]).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In other studies, a large neutral fraction of \(\alpha \)-recoil isotopes was found [34]. That the ionic fraction dominates in the considered case is most likely due to stripping of the \(\alpha \)-recoil nuclides in the source material.

  2. 2.

    Note, that this is a simplification, as for a correct calculation of the electron energies the work function \(\Phi \) of the surface material and the electon’s binding energy \(E_\text {b}\) below the fermi-edge have to be taken into account: \(E_\text {e}=E_\gamma -\Phi -E_\text {b}\). As CsI exhibits a work function of 6.2 eV, no significant correction for the maximum energy of the electrons is expected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Garching, Bavaria, Germany

    Lars Von der Wense

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  1. Lars Von der Wense
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Correspondence to Lars Von der Wense .

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Von der Wense, L. (2018). Experimental Setup. In: On the Direct Detection of 229m Th. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70461-6_4

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