Comparative study for intermediate crystal size of NaI(Tl) scintillation detector

The distinctive features of a well-known NaI(Tl) scintillation detector, by virtue of its crystal size, are experimentally investigated by observing changes in parameters such as intrinsic efficiency (ε_i), photo-peak efficiency (ε_p), resolution, and response function to incident gamma photon energy. This study provides a better understanding for the choice of crystal size of the scintillation detector in Compton scattering experiments. The response function of the NaI(Tl) detector is in the form of an inverse matrix focusing on the retort of the crystal when gamma photons are incident upon it. The response function of the NaI(Tl) detector depends upon the distance between the source and the detector, composition of the material for the crystal itself, photo-fraction, solid angle, incident gamma energy, and geometry of the experimental setup. The factors responsible for broadening of full energy and backscattered peaks are discussed for present investigations. The observed results indicate that the resolution of the detector varies with the incident energy of gamma radiation, and it also depends upon the size of the crystal of the detector. Statistical fluctuations related with the scintillation mechanism are found to be responsible for broadening of instrumental line width (photo-peak). The signal-to-noise ratio and photo-fraction for different crystal sizes of the scintillation detector corrected for efficiency of the detector are also discussed.