title: Measurements of the half-life of 214Po and 218Rn using digital electronics.
abstract: The half-lives of (214)Po and (218)Rn have been measured. The radionuclides were produced in the decay of a (230)U source and the emitted alpha-particles were measured in nearly-2π geometry with an ion-implanted planar silicon detector. The data acquisition was performed with a digitiser operated in list mode, saving the energy and time of detection (10 ns precision timestamp) of each event. The half-lives were deduced from the time differences between the alpha-decays populating the nuclide of interest and those corresponding to its decay. Different methods were applied, based on delayed coincidence counting and time-interval distribution analysis. The resulting half-lives are 33.75 (15) ms for (218)Rn and 164.2 (6) μs for (214)Po, both in agreement with some of the literature values, and obtained with higher precision in this work.
authors.affiliation: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Retieseweg 111, B-2440 Geel, Belgium.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Suliman
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pommé
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marouli
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Van Ammel
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jobbágy
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paepen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stroh
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Apostolidis
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abbas
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morgenstern
mesh_terms: D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006207:Half-Life; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D011059:Polonium / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011886:Radon / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
chemical_list: D011059:Polonium; D011886:Radon