Fiber optic ionizing radiation detector

The authors describe a novel design for an ionizing radiation sensor using coiled optical fibers, which can be placed within or near a radioactive source. Coiled fiber samples were placed inside metallic and metal-matrix composite cylinders to evaluate the sensitivity of the materials. The system has been shown to have a sensitivity range of 10 to 100 kRad(Si). Further study has shown that the proposed experimental set-up can be used to determine the mass attenuation coefficient. The mass attenuation coefficient was then used to optimize the number of windings that would make the detector most effective for radiation detection. Another major advantage of this detector is that it will be possible to repair the damage caused by ionizing radiation. This can be done by heating the fibers to a moderate temperature and holding the temperature for a specific time in order to eliminate the color centers.<>