New, high performance nuclear spectroscopy system using Si-PIN diodes and CdTe detectors

A compact, high resolution X-ray and gamma ray spectroscopy system has recently been developed which provides excellent energy resolution over a wide range of photon energies. Two detector types have been tested, a cooled silicon PIN photodiode for X-ray energies from 2keV to 30 keV and a CdTe detector for energies from 20 keV to 1 MeV. The CdTe detector can be operated cooled or at room temperature. The heart of the system is a miniature preamplifier developed at AMPTEK which is used in combination with a small thermoelectric cooler to reduce the leakage current of the detectors. Using the cooled Si-PIN detector, 660 eV FWHM was achieved at 5.9 keV and using a CdTe detector 1.3 keV was achieved at 60 keV both with nearly 100% counting efficiency. Good resolution was also achieved at higher energies