Comparison of low-energy and coaxial HPGe detectors for prompt gamma activation analysis of metallic samples.

In the prompt-gamma activation analysis, the spectra of multi-element metallic samples contain low-energy regions with complicated multiplets that are difficult to evaluate by fitting. This has an impact on the accuracy and precision of the final results. To overcome this, parallel measurements with Compton-suppressed coaxial HPGe and high-resolution, low-energy germanium detectors, with and without Compton-suppression, were completed in order to assess the performances of the setups under controlled conditions. The selectivities, the signal-to-background ratios and other characteristic features of the setups are compared, and the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]