Simulation study of a simultaneous beta–gamma-ray detection using a 3-layer phoswich detector and Monte Carlo methods.

Combination of two or three dissimilar scintillator materials as a radiation detector has found major role in environmental radiation monitoring. In this paper, a three-layer Phoswich detector including BC-400, YAG, and CsI was designed to efficiently discriminate gamma-ray in the beta events up to 3.2 MeV using a simple rise-time discrimination method. MCNPX Monte Carlo code was used to obtain interaction probability of beta and gamma-rays as well as optimum thicknesses of the layers in the designing process. The optical transport of the system was simulated by GEANT4. In this regard, the pulses from simultaneous beta-gamma emitter sources were detected and discriminated based on pulse's rise-time so that the minimum number of gamma-ray contaminating events was observed in the beta spectrum. The results showed that using the proposed configuration and the method, output pulses with a rise-time shorter than 9 ns have been successfully detected as a beta particle while those with rising time longer than 15 ns have been identified as gamma-ray events. Overall results revealed that using the proposed system, an individual spectrum of beta particles or gamma-rays can be recorded from a simultaneous beta-gamma emitter source that minimizes contribution of the other radiation. • A Phoswich detector was designed for simultaneous beta-gamma radiation. • Scintillator materials used in the detector structure should have different decay time constant. • GEANT4 simulation was used for scintillation lights transport. • A pulse discrimination method based on the pulse rise time has been proposed for pulse processing. • Beta-rays were successfully discriminated against gamma-rays by the proposed detector and associated pulse processing method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]