A beta ray spectrometer based on a two-, or three-element silicon detector coincidence telescope

The operation of a beta ray energy spectrometer based on a two-or three-element silicon detector telescope is described. The front detector (A) is a thin, totally depleted, silicon surface barrier detector either 40 μm, 72 μm or 98 μm thick. The back detector (C) is a Li compensated silicon detector, 5000 μm thick. An additional thin detector can be inserted between these two detectors when additional photon rejection capability is required in intense photon fields. The capability of the spectrometer to reject photons is based on the fact that incident photons will have a small probability of simultaneously losing detectable energy in two detectors and an even smaller probability of losing detectable energy in all three detectors. Electrons, however, above a low energy threshold, will always record simultaneous, measureable, events in all three detectors. The spectrometer is capable of measuring electron energies from a lower energy coincidence threshold of 70 keV with 60% efficiency increasing to 100% efficiency in the energy region between 150 keV and 2.5 MeV.