Experimental response function of NaI(Tl) scintillation detector for gamma photons and tomographic measurements for defect detection

The response function of gamma detector is an important factor for spectrum analysis because some photons and secondary electrons may escape the detector volume before fully depositing their energy, of course destroys the ideal delta function response. An inverse matrix approach, for unfolding of observed pulse-height distribution to a true photon spectrum, is used for construction of experimental response function by formulating a 40 × 40 matrix with bin mesh (E1/2) of 0.025 (MeV)1/2 for the present measurements. A tomographic scanner system, operating in a non-destructive and non-invasive way, is also presented for inspection of density variation in any object. The incoherent scattered intensity of 662 keV gamma photons, obtained by unfolding (deconvolution) the experimental pulse-height distribution of NaI(Tl) scintillation detector, provides the desired information. The method is quite sensitive, for showing inclusion of medium Z (atomic number) material (iron) in low Z material (aluminium) and detecting a void of ∼2 mm in size for iron block, to investigate the inhomogeneities in the object. Also, the grey scale images (using “MATLAB”) are shown to visualise the presence of defects/inclusion in metal samples.