tritium

Tritium bremsstrahlung is easy to detect with a sensitive Geiger counter.

I used a GM45 which has a pancake detector with a beryllium window.

I measured 400 CPM from a tritium source used in a luminescent marker.

The tritium source was behind 1 mm of glass, 4 mm of acrylic, and 20 mm of air.

Tritium beta decay energy: 0.018590 MeV (kVp=18.6 keV, kVaverage=5.7 keV)

Acrylic glass

• Molecular formula: (C5O2H8)n
• Density: 1.18 g/cm<super>3</super>

borosilicate glass

       Energy(MeV)  μ/ρ(cm2/g) μen/ρ(cm2/g)
       1.00000E-03  3.164E+03  3.155E+03 
       1.03542E-03  2.887E+03  2.879E+03 
       1.07210E-03  2.634E+03  2.627E+03 
       1.07210E-03  2.800E+03  2.790E+03 # 11K
       1.50000E-03  1.152E+03  1.148E+03 
       1.55960E-03  1.037E+03  1.033E+03 
       1.55960E-03  1.079E+03  1.073E+03 # 13K
       1.69350E-03  8.629E+02  8.583E+02 
       1.83890E-03  6.883E+02  6.845E+02 
       1.83890E-03  1.776E+03  1.723E+03 # 14K
       2.00000E-03  1.500E+03  1.457E+03 
       3.00000E-03  5.123E+02  5.011E+02 
       3.60740E-03  3.098E+02  3.036E+02 
       3.60740E-03  3.133E+02  3.067E+02 # 19K
       4.00000E-03  2.355E+02  2.307E+02 
       5.00000E-03  1.260E+02  1.235E+02 
       6.00000E-03  7.500E+01  7.337E+01 
       8.00000E-03  3.269E+01  3.178E+01 
       1.00000E-02  1.705E+01  1.642E+01 
       1.50000E-02  5.217E+00  4.828E+00 
       2.00000E-02  2.297E+00  1.995E+00 
       3.00000E-02  7.987E-01  5.684E-01 
       4.00000E-02  4.341E-01  2.361E-01 
       5.00000E-02  3.022E-01  1.235E-01 
       6.00000E-02  2.417E-01  7.648E-02 
       8.00000E-02  1.890E-01  4.230E-02 
       1.00000E-01  1.657E-01  3.209E-02 
       1.50000E-01  1.389E-01  2.727E-02 
       2.00000E-01  1.246E-01  2.757E-02 
       3.00000E-01  1.069E-01  2.885E-02 
       4.00000E-01  9.540E-02  2.946E-02 
       5.00000E-01  8.696E-02  2.957E-02 
       6.00000E-01  8.035E-02  2.941E-02 
       8.00000E-01  7.052E-02  2.868E-02 
       1.00000E+00  6.337E-02  2.774E-02 
       1.25000E+00  5.667E-02  2.650E-02 
       1.50000E+00  5.160E-02  2.533E-02 
       2.00000E+00  4.447E-02  2.337E-02 
       3.00000E+00  3.611E-02  2.069E-02 
       4.00000E+00  3.140E-02  1.904E-02 
       5.00000E+00  2.838E-02  1.795E-02 
       6.00000E+00  2.632E-02  1.721E-02 
       8.00000E+00  2.373E-02  1.629E-02 
       1.00000E+01  2.223E-02  1.579E-02 
       1.50000E+01  2.045E-02  1.522E-02 
       2.00000E+01  1.982E-02  1.503E-02