Inhomogeneity effects on HPGe gamma spectrometry detection efficiency using Monte Carlo technique

This work deals with the inhomogeneity effects on the full energy peak efficiency determination with HPGe gamma spectrometry. The inhomogeneity of the sample was defined in this work as being the fraction of its volume, which does not contain gamma emitters. We applied the Monte Carlo technique based on the GEANT4 code of CERN to study these effects for soil samples for the case of high density (1.54 g/cm3) where the attenuation effects are expected to increase the errors on the activity measurement due to the inhomogeneity. The correction of the efficiency against these effects using Monte Carlo method has been applied in two cases. The first is between samples with different homogeneity values and a calibration standard, which is perfectly homogeneous, and the second is between a sample and a calibration standard with different imperfect homogeneities.

► We study inhomogeneity effects on HPGe gamma spectrometry efficiency determination.
► Monte Carlo method has been used (through GEANT4 code of CERN).
► Sample matrix inhomogeneity was modelled.
► Correction of the efficiency against inhomogeneity effects was performed.
► This correction is systematic for high density matrices.