May 8, 2024 - Plastic Detectors for C-14 Dating

Often Carbon-14 dating is not done with solid scintillation counters, but we can offer a low cost plastic solution for this application. C-14 emits beta radiation and has an endpoint energy of 156 keV. When using a plastic detector, the radiation should pass through a window, with low noise, and mounted in a lead shielding.

C-14 can be easily compared to the energy of Chlorine-36 (CI-36) at 714 keV. From the graph below, the noise is below channel 10 and if we assume that 714 keV is channel 500, this is 14 keV.

One important aspect to consider are additional light guides to reduce radiation background background.

Pulse height spectrum of CI-36 in a thin plastic scintillator (VS-0054-30)

Berkeley Nucleonics offers plastic detectors that provide a cost effective alternative to inorganic crystals. There are several options available for particle detection, neutron detection, gamma/neutron discrimination, and security or health physics applications. Create one system by pairing the plastic detector with a multichannel analyzer, such as the bMCA-Ethernet MCA.