Cosmic-ray induced background intercomparison with actively shielded HPGe detectors at underground locations


Cosmic-ray induced background intercomparison with actively shielded HPGe detectors at underground locations

Szücs, T.; Bemmerer, D.; Reinhardt, T. P.; Schmidt, K.; Takács, M. P.; Wagner, A.; Wagner, L.; Weinberger, D.; Zuber, K.

The main background above 3MeV for in-beam nuclear astrophysics studies with g-ray detectors is caused by cosmic-ray induced secondaries. The two commonly used suppression methods, active and passive shielding, against this kind of background were formerly considered only as alternatives. In this work the study of the effects of active shielding against cosmic-ray induced events at a medium deep location is performed. Background spectra were recorded with two actively shielded HPGe detectors. The experiment was located at 148m below the surface of the Earth in the Reiche Zeche mine in Freiberg, Germany. The results are compared to data with the same detectors at the Earth's surface, and at depths of 45m and 1400 m, respectively.

Keywords: Nuclear astrophysics; underground physics; active shielding; gamma-ray background; cosmic-ray induced background; germanium detectors

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-21445
Publ.-Id: 21445