JOURNAL OF RADIOANALYTICAL AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY, cilt.283, sa.2, ss.305-312, 2010 (SCI-Expanded)
In this paper, a semi-empirical method is proposed to determine true coincidence-summing (TCS) correction factors for high resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. It needs the knowledge of both full energy peak (FEP) efficiency and total-to-peak (TTP) efficiency curves. The TTP efficiency curve is established from the measurements with a set of coincidence-free point sources. Whereas for a volume source, the coincidence-free FEP efficiency curve is obtained iteratively by using the peaks from almost the coincidence-free nuclides and those from the coincident nuclides in the mixed standard sources. Then the fitting parameters obtained for both TTP and FEP efficiency curves are combined in a freely-available TCS calculation program called TrueCoinc, which yields the TCS correction factors required for any nuclide. As an application, the TCS correction factors were determined for the particular peaks of U-238, Ra-226 and Th-232 in the reference materials, measured in the case of a close-in detection geometry using a well-type Ge detector. The present TCS correction method can be applied without difficulty to all Ge detectors for any coincident nuclide.