Energy spectrum correction method applied to semiconductor gamma detector
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the technical field of radiation detection, and particularly relates to an energy spectrum correction method applied to a semiconductor gamma detector.
Background
The semiconductor detector has the advantages of high energy resolution, quick time response, simple structure and the like, and is widely applied to the fields of nuclear industry, nuclear medicine, nuclear radiation detection and the like. Among them, compound semiconductor materials (such as cadmium zinc telluride, cadmium telluride, gallium arsenide, mercury iodide, etc.) have high forbidden bandwidth and small leakage current, so that a detector made of the compound semiconductor materials can work under the room temperature condition, and the compound semiconductor materials are widely applied to energy spectrum measurement of X rays and gamma rays. However, the conventional compound semiconductor material has low hole mobility, and holes are very easily trapped, so that there is a severe signal amplitude (charge) loss, which limits the energy resolution of the detector. One currently effective method is to create a hemispherical or quasi-hemispherical electric field inside the probe. By using this method, the electric field strength near the anode is large and the potential drops rapidly away from the anode, so that the potential is low and does not differ much over most of the area of the detector. Thus, for most incident particles, the current pulses generated by hemispherical or quasi-hemispherical semiconductor gamma detectors are mainly contributed by electron drift, the hole contribution is negligible, and the energy resolution of the detector is significantly improved.
However, for a certain number of cases, the hitting position is too close to the anode, the electron drift path is too short, the difference between the weighted potentials at the end point and the starting point of the drift path is not large, and the signal charges cannot be completely collected. Meanwhile, in the case of the hit position close to the cathode, since the electron drift distance is too long, a part of the electrons are trapped, and thus the charge collection is not complete. The two factors cause charge loss, so that the full energy peak of the gamma energy spectrum no longer conforms to normal distribution, the left half of the full energy peak is widened, and the energy resolution is deteriorated, namely the low-energy tailing effect of the gamma full energy peak. The low-energy tailing effect not only causes the reduction of energy resolution, but also easily causes the gamma full-energy peak with lower energy and lower activity to be annihilated by the full-energy peak with higher energy under the scene with more complex source terms, thereby seriously influencing the effect of nuclide identification. If further correction is possible, its performance can be greatly improved.
At present, a plurality of research results about energy spectrum correction of a compound semiconductor detector are published at home and abroad, and the typical results are as follows: the depth sensitivity and energy correction technology research based on the pixel CZT detector by Wujun et al, university of Chengqing university, li' 28156569 by Chongqing et al, and the like, but the researches aim at the pixel type semiconductor detector. For the research ON the gamma spectrum correction of the quasi-hemispherical semiconductor detector, there is mainly a paper Performance of a New CdZnTe Portable spectral System for High Energy Applications (IEEE transport ON NUCLEAR device, vol.52, no.5, octber 2005) published by l.verger et al, but this work only eliminates a part of the case where the rise time is too short and does not compensate for the amplitude.
In order to further improve the gamma energy spectrum resolution of the quasi-hemispherical semiconductor detector, the invention provides a method for classifying gamma cases according to waveform rise time by combining the self structural characteristics and the electric field characteristics of the quasi-hemispherical semiconductor detector, and compensating and correcting a signal amplitude (namely charge) measured value on the basis of the classification, so that the low-energy tailing effect of a full-energy peak of the gamma energy spectrum is improved. Since the low-energy smearing is mainly manifested at the left bottom of the full-energy peak, the low-energy smearing can be characterized by introducing a tenth of the full-energy peak (FWTM). The method can improve the energy resolution of the detector, particularly can obviously reduce the FWTM resolution of the full energy peak, so that the full energy peak corresponding to the nuclide with lower activity close to the left side of the full energy peak is more prominent, and the identification capability of the gamma nuclide is improved.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a gamma energy spectrum correction method for compensating charge collection loss caused by too short drift path of electrons and electron capture so as to improve the energy resolution of a full energy peak, aiming at the problem that in the prior art, the mobility difference of electrons and holes of a quasi-hemispherical compound semiconductor gamma detector in an electric field is large, so that signal charges are lost, and low-energy tailing is caused.
In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows:
a method for correcting an energy spectrum applied to a semiconductor gamma detector comprises the following steps:
step 1: carrying out analog integration on a current pulse signal output by the detector by using a fast-leading edge and low-noise charge sensitive amplifier, sampling and digitizing a waveform after the integration amplification, and extracting rise time and amplitude information of the waveform on the basis;
step 2: eliminating the case with too short rise time, and the rest are effective cases;
and step 3: aiming at effective cases, the waveform is divided into two types according to the rising time characteristic of the waveform, wherein the first type is a case that an electronic drift path is too short, and the second type is a case that the electronic drift path is too long;
and 4, step 4: and carrying out calibration test on the detector by utilizing a radioactive source, fitting the relation between the waveform amplitude and the rise time of the two types of cases obtained by the test, obtaining respective amplitude compensation formulas of the two types of cases through fitting, respectively compensating the amplitude values of the two types of cases according to the amplitude compensation formulas, and then carrying out statistics on the amplitude values of all the compensated cases to obtain the corrected energy spectrum.
Further, in step 2, the case that the rise time is too short is eliminated, that is, a parameter t is set 0 If the waveform rises for a time t r Less than t 0 Then the case is discarded.
Further, in step 4, the first class instance magnitude values are compensated, i.e. for a given time t 1 If the waveform rises for a time t r Less than t 1 Compensating for charge collection loss caused by too short electron drift path and too small weighted potential difference between drift path end point and start point, wherein t 1 >t 0 。
Further, in step 4, the second class of example amplitude values are compensated, i.e. for a given time t 1 If the waveform rises for a time t r Greater than t 1 Then compensate for its charge collection loss due to electron trapping, where t 1 >t 0 。
Furthermore, the parameters of the amplitude compensation formula for compensating the first class of case amplitude values or the second class of case amplitude values are obtained by measuring a standard radioactive source with known energy and fitting the rise time and the amplitude of the waveform of the standard radioactive source; the amplitude compensation formula can be constructed in a number of ways, including an analytical function, or as a look-up table in numerical form.
The principle of the invention is as follows: the original waveform is first acquired. The process of generating the original waveform is as follows: after gamma rays are emitted into a semiconductor detector, generated electrons drift in a quasi-hemispherical electric field, generated current pulses pass through a charge sensitive amplifier, and voltage waveforms after integral amplification are output, wherein the amplitude A of the voltage waveforms is in direct proportion to the collected charge quantity Q, and the rising time of the voltage waveforms is determined by the inherent rising time of the amplifier and the time of the electrons drifting in the electric field of the detector.
According to Ramo's theorem, the collected charge amount Q satisfies:
Q=qU w
wherein, U w The weighted potential difference is the weighted potential difference between the electronic drift terminal point and the starting point, and in the quasi-hemispherical detector, the weighted potential difference is in direct proportion to the potential difference of the two points in the detector.
For gamma rays hitting a position very close to the anode, the drift path of the generated electrons is short, and the weighted potential difference across the drift path is small, so that the charge collection is incomplete. The drift time is also short due to the short drift path of the electrons, and the signal characteristics are represented by short rise time, and different rise times correspond to different charge loss degrees. The signal amplitude of the part of cases can be corrected according to the rising time of the part of cases, and can be directly discarded if the rising time is too short.
For gamma rays hitting a position far from the anode, due to the long drift distance of the electrons, part of the electrons are captured during the drift, and incomplete charge collection is also caused. The drift time of the part of signals is long due to the long drift time of electrons, the signal characteristics are represented by longer rising time, and different rising time corresponds to different charge loss degrees. For this part of the signal, the amplitude is also compensated in dependence on the rise time.
According to the technical scheme provided by the invention, the method can further improve the advantages of the quasi-hemispherical compound semiconductor gamma detector, so that the measured gamma energy spectrum has higher energy resolution. In a complex radioactive environment, especially under the condition that multiple nuclides exist simultaneously and the activity difference is large, the scheme can weaken the low-energy tailing effect of the full-energy peak of the gamma nuclide, and improve the identification capability of a spectrometer on the radionuclide to a great extent, so that the requirements of accurately measuring the energy spectrum of gamma rays and identifying the nuclides can be better met.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the correction of energy spectrum measurement of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram provided by an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a diagram of a structural model of a detector according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a graph of rise time-amplitude relationship before and after correction according to an embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 5 is a comparison graph of the energy spectrum before and after the correction provided by the embodiment of the invention.
Detailed Description
In order to make the technical contents of the present invention clearer, a specific embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments of the present invention without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
The invention discloses an energy spectrum correction method applied to a semiconductor gamma detector, and a flow for realizing energy spectrum measurement correction is shown in figure 1. The method comprises the following steps:
step 1: the current pulse signal output by the detector is subjected to integral amplification by using a fast-leading-edge and low-noise charge sensitive amplifier, then the waveform output by the amplifier is digitized, and then the rising time and amplitude information of the waveform are extracted. In this embodiment, the time interval between the time when the waveform reaches a preset low threshold and the time when the waveform reaches a preset high threshold is used as the rising time, and the rising time of the waveform may also be calculated by other methods, where a typical waveform is shown in fig. 2.
Step 2: the case with too short rise time is eliminated, and the specific method comprises the following steps: given a parameter t 0 If the waveform rises for a time t r Less than t 0 Then the case is discarded.
And 3, step 3: the waveforms retained in the step 2 are divided into two types according to the rise time, and the classification method is as follows: for a given parameter t 1 (t 1 >t 0 ) If the waveform rises for a time t r Less than t 1 If yes, the case is the first kind case; otherwise, it is the second kind of case.
And 4, step 4: and carrying out calibration test on the detector by utilizing a radioactive source, fitting the relation between the waveform amplitude and the rise time of the two types of cases obtained by the test, obtaining respective amplitude compensation formulas of the two types of cases through fitting, respectively compensating the amplitude values of the two types of cases according to the amplitude compensation formulas, and then carrying out statistics on the amplitude values of all the compensated cases to obtain the corrected energy spectrum. The method specifically comprises the following steps:
1) Compensating for case-magnitude values of the first kind, i.e. for a given time t 1 (t 1 >t 0 ) If the waveform rises for a time t r Less than t 1 Compensating for its charge deficit due to too short an electron drift path. The amplitude compensation formula is as follows:
A′=A+A*f 1 (t r ) (1)
wherein A' is the amplitude after compensation, A is the original amplitude of the waveform, f 1 Is the rise time t r As a function of (c). The formula is obtained by performing calibration test on a gamma detector to be corrected by using a radioactive source with known energy and then fitting the relationship between the waveform rise time and the amplitude of each case. The amplitude compensation formula can be formed by an analytical function, and can also be formed into a lookup table in a numerical form.
2) For the second class of cases, the charge deficit due to electron trapping is compensated for. The amplitude compensation formula is as follows:
A′=A+A*f 2 (t r ) (2)
wherein A' is the amplitude after compensation, A is the original amplitude of the waveform, f 2 Is the rise time t r As a function of (c). The formula is obtained by performing calibration test on a gamma detector to be corrected by using a radioactive source with known energy and then fitting the relationship between the waveform rise time and the amplitude of each case. The amplitude compensation formula can be formed by an analytical function, and can also be formed into a lookup table in a numerical form.
3) The energy spectrum is calculated using the amplitude after rejection and compensation.
In order to further show the implementation mode and the effect of the correction method, a quasi-hemispherical semiconductor detector with typical structure size is set by physical simulation software to generate a simulation case and a corresponding signal waveform, and then the technical scheme provided by the invention is utilized to process the simulation case and the corresponding signal waveform:
the implementation case adopts the commonly used Garfield + + software in the field of particle detection to perform Monte Carlo simulation. The detector material was set in software as Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) with dimensions of 10mm × 5mm. The detector structure is quasi-hemispherical, the anode is located at the center of the top (square), the size is 1mm × 1mm, the other five surfaces are cathodes, and the structural model is shown in fig. 3. Its electron mobility was set at a typical 1100cm 2 /(V · s), hole mobility was set at typically 50cm 2 V · s. A gamma point source with the energy of 511keV is arranged at a position 10mm away from the cathode at the bottom of the detector, and a current pulse signal generated after each gamma ray acts on the detector can be obtained through simulation. Meanwhile, a typical fast-front-edge low-noise charge sensitive amplifier is simulated by utilizing PSpice analog circuit simulation software, so that an impulse response function of the amplifier can be obtained, and the inherent rise time of the amplifier is about 16ns in the embodiment.
The specific process of gamma spectrum correction using simulation data is described below:
firstly, convolution is carried out on a current pulse signal of a detector and an impulse response function of an amplifierThe output waveform of the amplifier is obtained and digitized. The sample point interval is set to 2ns, which is equivalent to a waveform digitization sample rate of 500MSPS, then the waveform rise time and amplitude are calculated and recorded, and then a two-dimensional scatter diagram is made, as shown in the left diagram in fig. 4. Here, the high and low thresholds are set to 90% and 10% of the waveform amplitude, respectively, and the parameter t is set to 0 Is 30ns, parameter t 1 Is 50ns. Namely, the case with the rise time less than 30ns is abandoned, and the rest cases are divided into two types, wherein the case with the waveform rise time between 30ns and 50ns is the first type case, and the rest is the second type case.
As can be seen from the left diagram in fig. 4, for the first class of cases, the amplitude decreases with decreasing rise time, i.e. the charge collection loss due to the smaller weight potential difference across the electron drift path; for the second class of cases, the amplitude decreases with increasing rise time, which is the charge collection loss due to electron trapping. The first and second cases can use the aforementioned formulas (1) and (2) to perform amplitude compensation, respectively. The amplitude compensation formulas (1) and (2) are obtained by performing calibration tests by using a gamma radiation source with known energy (in this embodiment, a single-energy gamma source is set in simulation software to obtain simulation data), and fitting the relationship between the rise time and the amplitude of the waveform.
The rise time-amplitude relationship after correction according to the above steps is shown in the right diagram of fig. 4, and it can be seen that both types of charge deficiency are effectively corrected. The pair of spectra before and after correction is shown in FIG. 5, where the full width at half maximum (FWHM) is reduced from 1.78keV to 1.68keV, the tenth of the full width at half maximum (FWTM) is reduced from 4.65keV to 3.21keV, and the FWTM/FWHM is reduced from 2.61 to 1.91, approaching the theoretical value of Gaussian distribution of 1.82. The energy resolution is obviously improved after the correction.
The above-mentioned embodiments further explain the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention in detail. It should be understood that the above description is only exemplary of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. Any modification, including the replacement of the semiconductor detector type (e.g., cadmium zinc telluride to semiconductor detectors based on other materials, or the difference between the performance parameters of the detector material and the simulation parameters set forth in the embodiments), or the change of the specific size or geometry of the detector, and the equivalent replacement, modification, etc., within the spirit and principle of the present invention, shall be included in the protection scope of the present invention.