With this, we have reached the end of our brief introduction to gamma spectrometry. You now know what is meant by the term ‘gamma spectrometry’. You are familiar with the most important components and tasks of a typical gamma spectrometry measuring station, have learned what a gamma spectrum looks like and why energy calibration of the spectrum is necessary, as well as how to perform it. With this knowledge, we have worked through the necessary steps to carry out an identification of the nuclides based on a gamma spectrum.
Now we just need to answer the second question posed at the beginning: what is gamma spectrometry useful for?
Well, you should actually be able to answer this question yourself. If you haven't thought about it yet, now would be a good time to do so.
Let’s briefly recap the key points and put them in a logical order:
- We know that we can identify nuclides in a gamma spectrum by their characteristic lines, the peaks in the spectrum.
- The gamma spectrum results from a measurement with a gamma detector.
- And the measurement is performed for one measurement sample.
From this, it follows that we can identify the radioactive nuclides contained in a sample with a gamma measurement. These are utilized in various fields. Examples for this are medicine (diagnosis/treatment), industry (material testing, measurements), and research (environmental analytics), just to name a few.
Thus, we have indeed reached the end of our introduction to gamma spectrometry. Further, supplementary, and more detailed information can be found in the sections Advanced, Users and Experts.
