A Compton-vetoed germanium detector with increased sensitivity at low energies

The difficulty to directly detect plutonium in spent nuclear fuel due to the high Compton background of the fission products motivates the design of a gamma detector with improved sensitivity at low energies. We have built such a detector by operating a thin high-purity Ge detector with a large scintillator Compton veto directly behind it. The Ge detector is thin to absorb just the low-energy Pu radiation of interest while minimizing Compton scattering of high-energy radiation from the fission products. The subsequent scintillator is large so that forward-scattered photons from the Ge detector interact in it at least once to provide an anti-coincidence veto for the Ge detector. For highest sensitivity, additional material in the line of sight is minimized, the radioactive sample is kept thin, and its radiation is collimated. We will discuss the instrument design, and demonstrate the feasibility of the approach with a prototype that employs two large CsI scintillator vetoes. Initial spectra of a thin Cs-137 calibration source show a background suppression of a factor of ~2.5 at ~100 keV, limited by an unexpectedly thick 4 mm dead layer in the Ge detector.     

Einfluß der Nachimpulse des Photosekundärelektronenvervielfachers bei Flüssigkeitsszintillationszählungen

Der Einfluβder Nachimpulse einiger Exemplare des Vervielfachertyps S 12 FS 35 vom VEB Carl Zeiss Jena auf die Flüssigkeitsszintillationszählung wurde in Abhängigkeit von verschiedenen Parametern untersucht. Daraus ergeben sich praktische Hinweise zur Vermeidung von Fehlmessungen durch Nachimpulse, die bei absoluten Aktivitätsbestimmungen mit dem Flüssigkeitsszintillationszähler (z. B. Meβkopf Nr. 25510 der Firma E. Zimmermann, Leipzig) unbedingt zu berücksichtigen sind.     

Graphene screen‐printed radio‐frequency identification devices on flexible substrates

Despite the great promise of printed flexible electronics from 2D crystals, and especially graphene, few scalable applications have been reported so far that can be termed roll‐to‐roll compatible. Here we combine screen printed graphene with photonic annealing to realize radio‐frequency identification devices with a reading range of up to 4 meters. Most notably our approach leads to fatigue resistant devices showing less than 1% deterioration of electrical properties after 1000 bending cycles. The bending fatigue resistance demonstrated on a variety of technologically relevant plastic and paper substrates renders the material highly suitable for various printable wearable devices, where repeatable dynamic bending stress is expected during usage. All applied printing and post‐processing methods are compatible with roll‐to‐roll manufacturing and temperature sensitive flexible substrates providing a platform for the scalable manufacturing of mechanically stable and environmentally friendly graphene printed electronics.

     

Mean first passage time for a class of non-Markovian processes

We determine the probability distribution of the first passage time for a class of non-Markovian processes. This class contains, amongst others, the well-known continuous time random walk (CTRW), which is able to account for many properties of anomalous diffusion processes. In particular, we obtain the mean first passage time for CTRW processes with truncated power-law transition time distribution. Our treatment is based on the fact that the solutions of the non-Markovian master equation can be obtained via an integral transform from a Markovian Langevin process.