815126

Test & Measurement

Measure Gamma Rays

with a Photodiode
Radiation detector
using a BPW34
by Burkhard Kainka (Germany)

The first device that springs

to mind when thinking about
measuring radioactivity is the
Geiger-Müller tube. However,
these counter tubes are
getting hard to find and
expensive, and even if you do
manage to get hold of one, you will still need to find a way to generate its operating voltage of several
hundred volts. It is less well known that even a humble photodiode such as the BPW34 can be used to
detect X-rays and gamma radiation.

Ionising radiation is potentially harmful us and are also not stopped even by a thick generate such a signal if they are sufficiently
to health, and it is important to minimise wall. Alpha particles, on the other hand, energetic to reach the depletion layer.
one’s exposure to it as far as possible. A sim- only have a short range and generally can- The amplitude of the signal produced by
ple Geiger counter with a small glass mantle not even penetrate a sheet of paper: this is the photodiode is considerably smaller than
tube will not usually be adequate to detect the reason that many counter tubes can- that normally obtained from a counter tube,
possibly harmful radiation. The semicon- not detect them, unless they have a very and so a very low-noise instrumentation
ductor sensor we describe below also has thin mica window. Beta particles have a amplifier circuit is needed.
a relatively low sensitivity, only being able longer range and can penetrate thin sheets
to detect fairly intense sources of radia- of metal. Most counter tubes are mainly Another requirement when using a photodi-
tion, but it is nevertheless an interesting designed for detecting gamma rays while, ode as a beta and gamma radiation detector
device for carrying out experiments and within certain limitations, also being sensi- is that light must be completely excluded,
measurements. tive to beta particles. as otherwise the photocurrent will over-
whelm the signal we are looking for. In our
An advantage of using a photodiode is its Diode as detector prototype we used ordinary aluminium
small sensitive area. The background rate The behaviour of a type BPW34 PIN photo- kitchen foil as a screen.
due to cosmic rays is very low and signals diode is similar to that of a low-cost coun-
from small samples are easier to detect than ter tube. Alpha particles will be stopped by The difference between PIN diodes and PN
with a counter tube. the plastic enclosure of the device, whereas diodes is that the former include an extra
gamma rays pass through without prob- very lightly N-doped region called the
Radiation lem and create many electron-hole pairs in ‘intrinsic’, or ‘i’ region. This high-resistance
When considering protection from radia- the diode’s depletion layer. If the diode is region lies between the ‘n’ and ‘p’ regions.
tion it is gamma rays that are the most reverse-biased, almost all of the charge car- The result is a wider depletion layer in the
important. They can penetrate walls and it riers will be drawn away: this corresponds to diode, and hence a greater volume of semi-
is difficult to block them. Hard gamma rays a small current pulse which can be ampli- conductor that can interact with photons.
are present in the environment all around fied and processed. Beta particles can also The structure is used in a photodiode in

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 815126

Test & Measurement

R1 +9V
220k
R3 R4

220k

4k7
D1 K1

T2
BPW34
T1
order to obtain as many charge carriers BC549C
as possible per photon, optimising the
device’s sensitivity. BC549C
R2
2M2
R5
Another way to increase sensitivity is C1 C2 C3
to increase the sensitive area of the

1k
100n 10u 100u
device. However, this has the disad- 16V 16V

vantage of increasing its capacitance, 110372 - 11

which reduces the (voltage) amplitude
of its output signal. Commercially-avail-
able semiconductor radiation detectors Figure 1. The amplifier circuit.
have a large area and a wide intrinsic
region. Simple PIN photodiodes such as the
BPW34 are less sensitive than these devices, sitive to radiation than that the effect has the brief pulses from the photodiode into
but also of course somewhat cheaper. not been widely remarked on before. The longer pulses which can then more easily
The BPW34 and BPX61 photodiodes are effect is however well known in dynamic be amplified.
practically identical apart from their enclo- RAMs, whose stored data can be corrupted Sensitivity can also be increased by increas-
sures. The (cheaper) BPW34 comes in a by incident radiation. The problem of build- ing the reverse voltage on the diode. This
plastic package, whereas the BPX61 comes ing electronics to withstand the higher lev- reduces the capacitance of the diode and
in a TO-5 metal enclosure with a glass win- els of radiation found in space is becoming increases the size of the depletion layer.
dow. It is possible to remove this window increasingly difficult, because as structures The voltage can be as high as 32 V, although
(carefully!) to expose the chip: this will get smaller it becomes increasingly likely the optimum value probably lies somewhat
make the diode capable of detecting alpha that a single energetic particle can interfere lower: the diode already operates well at
particles. with the operation of a circuit. 9 V. It is also possible to wire two or more
The rays or particles must first make it photodiodes in parallel, and that way it is
through a 15 µm thick piece of aluminium Amplifier possible to achieve a sensitivity on a par
(the thickness of ordinary kitchen foil). This In the literature charge amplifiers are usu- with that of a small counter tube such as
is no obstacle to gamma rays and beta par- ally constructed using a low-noise FET-input the ZP1310.
ticles, and alpha particles with an energy of opamp as the input stage. Here we take an An oscilloscope can be connected to the
4 MeV or more will also pass through. When alternative approach: Figure 1 shows the output of the circuit to view the signal.
the particle enters the plastic of the photo- circuit of the sensor amplifier. Two tran- Readers who yearn for the clicking sound
diode package, deceleration radiation (Ger- sistors are used to amplify the signal from of a ‘real’ Geiger counter should consult the
man: ‘bremsstrahlung’) will be produced in the photodiode. The direct-coupled ampli- text box ‘From radiation to sound’ for a suit-
the form of brief flashes of light, which can fier automatically sets itself to a mid-range able solution.
also sometimes be detected by the sensor. operating point, which gets a good signal-
It is therefore not impossible for even the to-noise ratio from the low-noise BC549C Construction
BPW34 to have some sensitivity to alpha transistors. The circuit can be built on a piece of bread-
particles. The transistor input of the amplifier has a board (see Figure 2), with the photodi-
comparatively low impedance, which gives ode on the underside (Figure 3). To keep
In principle any semiconductor is sensi- good noise matching. As a result of its light out of the sensor the whole circuit is
tive to ionising radiation. It is perhaps less base-collector capacitance the first stage wrapped in aluminium foil (Figure 4). As
surprising, then, that a photodiode is sen- also operates as an integrator: this turns mentioned above, ordinary kitchen foil is

Figure 2. Prototype of the sensor amplifier. Figure 3. The sensor is on the underside of
the board.

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 815126

Test & Measurement

Luminous dials
An old watch with a luminous dial is ideal for testing radiation de- paint is a radioactive mixture, you will see faint flashing and flicker-
tectors. Alternatively, a suitable alarm clock or compass might be ing: you are actually witnessing individual decays. The alpha par-
found at a car boot sale. ticles produced excite the luminous paint. If you see no light or an
Radioactive luminous paints were used until about 1965 and watch absolutely uniform light, then there is no radioactivity present.
and clock faces from that time will have lost almost all of their lumi- This test is probably only possible with luminous paints based on ra-
nosity by now. If you are not sure whether your watch is radioac- dioactive materials that have aged considerably, as when the paints
tive, it is possible to carry out a simple test without any electronics: are new there may be too many decays happening to see them
all you need is a magnifying glass. In complete darkness, with your individually.
eyes fully accommodated, look at the hands under the glass. If the

In the quiescent state a band of amplified

noise about 30 mVpp will be seen (Figure 5).
A gamma ray hitting the sensor will be seen
as a positive pulse with a small negative
undershoot following it. If strong negative-
going pulses are seen it is a sign that the
circuit is not screened well enough and is
reacting to RF signals: the radiation we are
trying to detect only causes positive-going
pulses. Figure 6 shows the signal accumu-
Figure 4. The whole thing is wrapped in aluminium foil. lated over a period of 30 s with the sensor
pointing at an old pocket watch with lumi-
nous hands.
ideal for this as it is thin enough to let beta Experiments and results
particles through. The foil also functions as The best way to evaluate the results is to use Figure 7 shows measurements taken from
electrical screening. a digital oscilloscope, in AC-coupled mode. A another radioactive sample, in this case a
good place to start is with a vertical sensitiv- small piece of pitchblende (uranite), a nat-
To avoid the foil causing short circuits, wrap ity of 50 mV per division and a timebase of urally-occurring ore of uranium. Again the
the board first in insulating tape, leaving a 0.2 ms per division. Some oscilloscopes have a measurements are taken over 30 s. It is easy
gap for the window of the photodiode. Then persistence mode which allows the results to to see that this sample is more radioactive;
wrap the assembly in foil, not forgetting to be accumulated on the display. It is of course but it is also possible to see a difference in
connect the foil to ground. also possible to use an analogue oscilloscope. the energy distribution. There are more

From radiation to sound

+9V
A ‘real’ Geiger counter makes a pleasant ticking sound. Our diode
sensor, on the other hand, is completely silent. R1 R4 R6 R7
33k
100k

100k

1k

We can remedy the situation with the help of a comparator and a IC1 C3 LF
C1 5
circuit to stretch the pulses so that we can drive a loudspeaker to 3 8
6
7
T2
10u
16V
100n R3 LM311
make clicks. The tested circuit shown here uses a type LM311 com- 2M2
2
4 BC547C
parator which produces a pulse on its output when the amplitude
R2 P1 R5
of a pulse on its input exceeds a threshold set by the trimmer. The C2
33k

33k

100n
transistor at the output stretches the pulse to make it audible. The 100k

final output can be used to drive headphones, an audio amplifier GND 1 8 V+

and a loudspeaker, or a PC-style active speaker. IN+ 2

IN- 3
LM311
7 OUT
BALANCE/
6 STROBE
V- 4 5 BALANCE
110372 - 17

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 815126

Test & Measurement

Figure 5. Circuit output in the quiescent Figure 6. Readings over 30 seconds from an Figure 7. Readings over 30 seconds from a
state. old watch with luminous hands. sample of a mineral containing uranium.

pulses with an amplitude of over 100 mV The possibility of accumulating readings ier to separate the wanted signal from the
than in the case of the luminous watch. over a long time period lets us examine background. Figure 8 shows readings from
This shows that, unlike a Geiger tube, this samples where we would expect little or no a sample of galena, a mineral that we would
detector can determine the energy of the radioactivity. Here the photodiode works expect not to be radioactive at all. After half
individual particles. This in turn lets us make better than the counter tube as the back- an hour, however, we see two clear peaks.
deductions about the types of nuclei that ground rate is practically zero. With a Gei- We obtained a similar result from a sam-
are disintegrating. In the case of pitch- ger counter there are almost always pulses ple of granite, which is known to be slightly
blende these will be elements in the ura- arising from cosmic rays: these hard gamma radioactive.
nium decay series; in the case of the lumi- rays also affect the photodiode sensor, but
nous watch the decaying nucleus is likely to because of its much smaller sensitive area Certain components and pieces of appara-
be radium. these events are much rarer, and so it is eas- tus manufactured before stricter modern

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 815126

Test & Measurement

Radon decay products

Radioactive samples for testing can be obtained directly from the stripped of some of their electrons. This means that they have a
environment: we are constantly surrounded by radioactive materi- positive charge and so are attracted to the negatively charged wire.
als. For example, radon is continuously escaping from the ground. When this ‘dirty’ strip of paper is held up to the radiation detector,
This radioactive gas decays (with a moderate half-life) producing a high level of activity will be recorded. There is no danger, how-
further radionuclides, which can be collected. ever: if the isotopes had not been picked up by the wire, you would
Take a thin (0.2 mm diameter) piece of enamelled copper wire and probably have breathed them in instead.
stretch it out indoors. Apply a negative potential of between –5 kV This method will let you determine which rooms in your house have
and –10 kV to the wire and leave it for ten minutes. Disconnect the more radon in them. Normally levels will be higher in a cellar or
high voltage and then run a strip of paper along the length of the basement as the source of the radon is the earth below.
wire: you will pick up a dark line of dust that was attracted to the
A suitable high-voltage generator was described as the ‘Air Ioniser’
wire by the high voltage.
mini project in the June 2009 edition of Elektor (http://www.elektor.
These dust particles are particularly rich in the radioactive decay com/071072). It is necessary to extend the design by a further two
products of radon. The reason for this is interesting: when the ra- stages (two capacitors and two diodes) to obtain an output voltage
don decays the new nuclei are moving rapidly, and are therefore of 5 kV.

Figure 8. Readings over 30 minutes from a Figure 9. A gas discharge tube with a Figure 10. Readings taken from the gas
sample of galena. radioactive ioniser to aid starting. discharge tube shown in Figure 9.

controls were in place can turn out to be larly high energy: all the more surprising radioactivity can be measured. A sample-
radioactive sources. A well-known example given that the radiation had had to pene- and-hold circuit could be added to record
is that certain gas discharge lamps and volt- trate the glass envelope of the tube. energy levels, and the results could be dis-
age regulator tubes rated under 100 V con- played as a kind of energy spectrogram.
tain radioactive substances. The author had Outlook
already had suspicions about an old Russian We have described the sensor and a simple Another possibility is to look at taking
gas discharge lamp rated at 75 V/3 mA (Fig- amplifier for it. If the circuit is built into an measurements from other samples over a
ure 9). There is a small metal cap welded on enclosure, along with the comparator cir- long period. For example, potassium chlo-
to the outer cover, beneath which a strange cuit and loudspeaker described in the text ride is a very weak beta emitter. It would
pill is visible. Beneath this is a tiny hole. box, the result is a device that can be used be interesting to see if the photodiode can
in the field, for example to test minerals in detect it.
Taking readings over half an hour (Fig- a quarry. Combine the comparator with (110372)
ure 10) revealed impulses with a particu- a digital counter, and the overall level of

References and Internet Links http://thm.ankara.edu.tr/tac/YAZOKULU/yazokulu6/

dersler/06-09-2010/erhan-emirhan-cenap-ozben-pin-
- Maxim Application Note 2236:
photodiode.pdf
Gamma-Photon Radiation Detector
- C. W. Thiel:
http://pdfserv.maxim-ic.com/en/an/AN2236.pdf
An Introduction to Semiconductor Radiation Detectors
- Erhan Emirhan and Cenap S. Özben:
www.physics.montana.edu/students/thiel/docs/Detector.pdf
PIN photodiode-based X- and gamma-ray detectors

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