Relationship between radiation flux and count rate of a scintillator

[CraigH]

If the radiation flux is calculated as:

$F = \frac{L}{2*pi*r^{2}}$ where L is the luminosity of the source and r is the distance from the source

and the count rate of a scintillator

$\frac{number-of-scintillations}{time}$

What is the relationship between them?

There obviously should be one, as the count rate depends on the distance from the source and the strength of the source, as does the radiation flux.

Is it just a linear relationship? I'm guessing it varies for different scintillators but do they all have a linear relationship, or at least an almost linear relationship?

Thanks!

 

[fzero]

The number of particles captured in the scintillator will depend on the material and the size of the detector. Together, these and other considerations are encapsulated in the the "efficiency" of the detector. The efficiency is usually assumed to be linear over an appropriate range of particle energies, but there are certainly nonlinearities. For example, this http://www.detectors.saint-gobain.com/uploadedFiles/SGdetectors/Documents/Technical_Information_Notes/Efficiency-Calculations.pdf has graphs for various detectors using different materials. It's clear that there is a decent range where the efficiency is approximately linear, but significant nonlinearities emerge outside these ranges.

 

[CraigH]

Thankyou! This article will be a brilliant reference for my project!

I'm finding it very hard to follow though. Could you please explain a bit more how I would go about finding the expected count rate for a specific detector, (e.g CaF2), when exposed to a certain radiation flux.

e.g if the radiation has a luminosity of 1W and is 1 meter away from the scintillator, What would be the approximate count rate if there is only air between the source a 1 inch CaF2 detector?

Can you tell how I would go about answering this question?

Thanks

 

[fzero]

The number rate of particles that pass through the detector is the product of the flux and cross-sectional area presented to the radiation source. The efficiency tells you the percentage of particles that pass through that are actually detected. The remainder just pass through without being detected. You should end up with a formula that is the product of flux, area, and efficiency. The actual photon count rate is generally proportional to this, with another factor that depends on the energy of the original ionizing radiation.