[en] Due to advances in manufacturing large and highly segmented HPGe detectors along with the availability of fast and high-precision digital electronics, it is now possible to build efficient and high-resolution Compton cameras. Two-dimensionally segmented semi-conductor detectors along with pulse-shape analysis allow to obtain three-dimensional positions and energies of individual gamma-ray interactions. By employing gamma-ray tracking procedures it is possible to determine the scattering sequence in the detector and ultimately to deduce the incident direction of gamma rays without the use of a attenuating collimator. These advanced gamma-ray tracking-based Compton cameras are able not only to image gamma-ray sources with higher sensitivity than collimator-based systems but can increase the sensitivity in finding gamma-ray sources over non-imaging detectors, particularly in complex radiation fields. We have implemented a Compton camera built of a single double-sided strip HPGe detector with a strip pitch size of 2 mm. A three-dimensional position resolution of 0.5 mm at 122 keV by using simple pulse-shape analysis is achieved. We have implemented image reconstruction procedures for search scenarios, which are of interest for national security applications. In addition, we have developed reconstruction procedures to optimize image quality which potentially finds applications in other areas as well

[en] Monte Carlo simulations of a pixelated detector array of inorganic scintillators for high spatial resolution imaging of 1-9 MeV photons are presented. The results suggest that a detector array of 0.5 cm x 0.5 cm x 5 cm pixels of bismuth germanate may provide sufficient efficiency and spatial resolution to permit imaging of an object with uncertainties in dimension of several mm. The cross talk between pixels is found to be in the range of a few percent when pixels are shielded by ∼ 1mm of lead or tungsten. The contrast at the edge of an object is greatly improved by rejection of events depositing less than ∼ 1 MeV. Given the relatively short decay time of BGO, the simulations suggest that such a detector may prove adequate for the purpose of rapid scanning of highly-shielded cargos for possible presence of high atomic number (including clandestine fissionable) materials when used with low current high duty factor x-ray sources.

[en] Advanced gamma-ray detection technologies integrated with sophisticated robotic platforms will enable safer and more cost and time-efficient capabilities in support of nuclear decommissioning, waste management, and environmental remediation activities within the United States Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) complex and in the global nuclear power industry. In the Applied Nuclear Physics program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, we have developed the Nuclear Scene Data Fusion (SDF) capability to map gamma-ray emitting sources in large-scale, 3-D environments in real-time. This powerful capability has been successfully deployed in real-world environments, from a test-bed in Berkeley, CA to the exclusion zone in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan to support environmental remediation and contamination mapping efforts within evacuated communities, and is also currently being further developed in support of decommissioning efforts at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) in collaboration with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). In this work, we will provide an overview of SDF adapted for gamma-ray mapping onboard an UAS, as well as results from measurements demonstrating point and distributed source mapping. (authors)

[en] This document describes the basic detector performance for the CCI1 device, which consists of the Si2 and Ge2 detector components

[en] We have evaluated a collimator-less gamma-ray imaging system, which is based on thin layers of double-sided strip HPGe detectors. The position of individual gamma-ray interactions will be deduced by the strip addresses and the Ge layers which fired. Therefore, high bandwidth pulse processing is not required as in thick Ge detectors. While the drawback of such a device is the increased number of electronics channels to be read out and processed, there are several advantages, which are particularly important for remote applications: the operational voltage can be greatly reduced to fully deplete the detector and no high bandwidth signal processing electronics is required to determine positions. Only a charge sensitive preamplifier, a slow pulse shaping amplifier, and a fast discriminator are required on a per channel basis in order to determine photon energy and interaction position in three dimensions. Therefore, the power consumption and circuit board real estate can be minimized. More importantly, since the high bandwidth signal shapes are not used to determine the depth position, lower energy signals can be processed. The processing of these lower energy signals increases the efficiency for the recovery of small angle scattering. Currently, we are studying systems consisting of up to ten 2mm thick Ge layers with 2mm pitch size. The required electronics of the few hundred channels can be integrated to reduce space and power. We envision applications in nuclear non-proliferation and gamma-ray astronomy where ease of operation and low power consumption, and reliability, are crucial

[en] Gamma-ray tracking in a closed array of highly segmented HPGe detectors is a new concept for the detection of γ-radiation. Each of the interacting γ-rays is identified and separated by measuring the energies and positions of individual interactions and by applying tracking algorithms to reconstruct the scattering sequences, even if many γ-rays hit the array at the same time. The three-dimensional position and the energy of interactions are determined by using two-dimensionally segmented Ge detectors along with pulse-shape analysis of the signals. Such a detector will have new and much improved capabilities compared to current γ-ray spectrometer. One implementation of this concept, called GRETA (Gamma-Ray Energy Tracking Array), is currently being under development at LBNL. (orig.)

[en] Gamma-ray tracking is a new concept for the detection of γ radiation. One proposed implementation of this concept, called GRETA for Gamma Ray Energy Tracking Array, aims at an improvement in nuclear physics and is based on an array of highly segmented HPGe detectors. We have developed new techniques to determine three-dimensional positions and energies of interactions based on pulse-shape analysis in a two-dimensionally segmented Ge detector and algorithms which use this information to reconstruct the scattering sequence of γ rays, even if many γ rays hit the array at the same time. Such a detector will have a high efficiency and a good peak-to-background ratio, an excellent Doppler-shift correction and high count rate capability, as well as a high polarization sensitivity. However, the concept will not only improve the sensitivity for γ rays in nuclear physics but large potential gain is also possible in other areas, such as γ-ray imaging used in astrophysics or medicine. Only recently we have shown the proof-of-principle of the proposed concept based on the measured position resolution of better than 1 mm in three dimensions in a 36-fold segmented Ge detector at an γ-ray energy of 374 keV

[en] The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, RHIC, is two counter-rotating rings with six interaction points. The RF Beam Control system for each ring will control two 28 MHz cavities for acceleration, and five 197 MHz cavities for preserving the 5 ns bunch length during 10 hour beam stores. Digital technology is used extensively in: Direct Digital Synthesis of rf signals and Digital Signal Processing for, the realization of state-variable feedback loops, real-time calculation of rf frequency, and bunch-by-bunch phase measurement of the 120 bunches. DSP technology enables programming the parameters of the feedback loops in order to obtain closed-loop dynamics that are independent of synchrotron frequency

[en] The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, RHIC, is two counter-rotating rings with six interaction points. The RF Beam Control system for each ring will control two 28 MHz cavities for acceleration, and five 197 MHz cavities for preserving the 5 ns bunch length during 10 hour beam stores. Digital technology is used extensively in: Direct Digital Synthesis of rf signals and Digital Signal Processing for, the realization of state-variable feedback loops, real-time calculation of rf frequency, and bunch-by-bunch phase measurement of the 120 bunches. DSP technology enables programming the parameters of the feedback loops in order to obtain closed-loop dynamics that are independent of synchrotron frequency

[en] A Compton scatter camera based on position sensitive, planar Ge and Si(Li) detectors with segmented electrodes is being developed at LLNL. This paper presents various methods that were developed to increase the position resolution of the detectors, the granularity and capability to reconstruct the scattering sequence of the gamma-ray within the detectors. All these methods help to increase the efficiency of the imager, by accepting more photons in the final image. The initial extent and diffusion of charge-carrier clouds inside the semiconductor detectors are found to affect profoundly the fraction of interactions that deposit charge in multiple adjacent electrodes. An accurate identification of these charge-shared interactions is a key factor in correctly reconstructing the position of interactions in the detector