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Liquid Scintillation Counter Characterization, Optimization and Benzene Purity Correction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

F. G. McCormac
F. G. McCormac*
Affiliation:
The Queen's University of Belfast, School of Geosciences, Palaeoecology Centre Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland
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Abstract

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In liquid scintillation counting (LSC), small variations in benzene purity can cause 14C pulse-height spectra to move with respect to the counting window. Thus, one must carefully monitor the purity of each benzene sample and apply corrections for spectral shifts. I describe here the techniques used at Queen's University Belfast for deriving correction factors for observed small variations in benzene purity. I also describe the methods used at our laboratory to fine-tune our Quantulus LS counters for high-precision dating. The tuning of the instruments minimizes the effect of fluctuations in gain that may occur during the long counting periods required for high-precision dating. Any remaining influences on efficiency owing to gain changes are corrected for, along with the purity correction, by continuous monitoring of the spectrum produced by the external source.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , 1992 , pp. 37 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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