Dual type fiber-optic radiation sensor for measuring alpha and beta particles

In this study, we fabricated a dual type fiber-optic radiation sensor (DFORS) system using a spectroscopic technique to measure alpha and beta particles simultaneously and separately. The DFORS is composed of a sensing probe, a plastic optical fiber (POF), a photomultiplier tube (PMT)-amplifier system, and a multichannel analyzer (MCA). As sensing probes, a ZnS(Ag) film and CaF2(Eu) crystal were used for alpha and beta spectroscopy. And, we measured the alpha and beta energy spectra using the proposed DFORS system to discriminate species of the radioisotopes emitting alpha or beta particle. From the experimental results, we demonstrated that the small-sized, flexible, and insertable DFORS system can measure and discriminate the alpha and beta successfully with the spectral information of each radioisotope.