Publications by authors named "Krasimir Mitev"

This work presents an outline of a detection system that employs the Compton spectrometer method to assess the non-linearity of scintillator light yield. A novel approach is introduced, leading to more accurate measurements through the separate determination of the intrinsic light output parameters and the non-linearity of the scintillators. Key features of this system include the use of a portable scintillation detector with three photomultiplier tubes for precise measurement of the average number of detected photoelectrons and the incorporation of recent advancements in correction techniques for accidental coincidences.

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Despite widespread radon-in-water measurements, no primary radon-in-water standards currently exist. This work aims to bridge this gap by developing a system to produce radon-in-water reference materials. The system relies on cryogenic, loss-free transfer of radon, which is standardized through defined solid angle measurements, to a radon standard in water.

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In the Triple to Double Coincidence Ratio method in Liquid Scintillation Counting, the detection efficiency is calculated from the value of a free parameter describing the intrinsic light yield of the counting system. This model is generally based on a Poisson distribution of the number of photoelectrons detected and the detection efficiency is obtained from the complement of the non-detection efficiency. In the classical free parameter model, the mean of the Poisson distribution, m, is a constant but some variability of this mean could be expected from optical effects due to internal reflections inside the LS source or from non-homogeneity of the detection efficiency of the photomultiplier tubes.

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This work presents measurements of the half-lives of excited nuclear states of Np and Fe using a liquid scintillation (LS) spectrometer and a gamma detector. A novel approach for the determination of the half-lives of some excited states is presented which uses only LS counting data from a detector with two PMTs. The lifetime of the 1st and 2nd excited states of Fe were obtained without the use of a gamma detector.

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This work explores the distribution of time intervals between signals from the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) of a liquid scintillation counting (LSC) system when a scintillation burst caused by an ionizing particle is detected. This distribution is termed the cross-correlation distribution and it is shown that it contains information about the probability to detect a scintillation event. A theoretical model that describes the cross-correlation distribution is derived.

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In this work, the partition coefficients and diffusion lengths L D of radon in some polymers are experimentally determined for several temperatures in the range = 5-31 °C. Some of the obtained values are compared to published data available for the given temperatures. It is shown that the temperature dependencies of the partition coefficients K ( T ) , the diffusion lengths L D ( T ) , and the permeabilities P ( T ) could be described analytically for the studied temperature range 5-31 °C.

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The application of the compact disk (CD) method for radon measurements at mines, caves and other workplaces needs testing under highly variable exposure conditions. We present the results from a blind comparison of CDs exposed in the Laboratory of Natural Radiation (Saelices el Chico, Spain). During the exposure the temperature varied from 6.

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This work demonstrates that common plastic scintillators like BC-400, EJ-200 and SCSF-81 absorb radon and their scintillation pulse decay times are different for alpha- and beta-particles. This allows the application of pulse shape analysis for separation of the pulses of alpha- and beta-particles emitted by the absorbed radon and its progeny. It is shown that after pulse shape discrimination of beta-particles' pulses, the energy resolution of BC-400 and EJ-200 alpha spectra is sufficient to separate the peaks of (222)Rn, (218)Po and (214)Po and allows (222)Rn measurements that are unaffected by the presence of thoron ((220)Rn) in the environment.

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Purpose: The purpose of this work is to study the influence of photon energy cuts on the results of positron emission tomography (PET) Monte Carlo (MC) simulations.

Methods: MC simulations of PET scans of a box phantom and the NEMA image quality phantom are performed for 32 photon energy cut values in the interval 0.3-350 keV using a well-validated numerical model of a PET scanner.

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