A nearly mono-energetic 6-7 MeV photon calibration source.
A photon source has been developed which delivers about 85% of its photon dose equivalent from photons with energies of 6.1,6.9 and 7.1 MeV produced in the 19F(p, alpha gamma)16O reaction. The source uses up to 50 muA of 2.7 MeV protons incident on a 6 mg/cm2 target of CaF2. It produces a photon field with a dose equivalent rate of up to 6 mSv/h (600 mrem/h) over a large area 100 cm from the target. The field can be calibrated in terms of photon fluence to within +/- 5%. In common with other high-energy photon sources, there is considerable contamination of the field by knock-on electrons and scattered photons. Experiments with various filter materials and detailed Monte-Carlo calculations with the EGS electron-photon transport code have been done to investigate the importance of these contaminants.
D002138:Calibration; D004601:Elementary Particles; D005720:Gamma Rays; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards