Description:
Invention Summary
The invention offers a means to detect gammas from a nuclear source at remote distances. Gamma detection is the most common form of radiation detection. Currently, the gamma must seek the interaction region in a physical detector (crystal) which is of finite size. A CW electromagnetic wave is used with a less quality interaction region to detect and differentiate the gamma detected over a larger region of space remotely. Different frequency shifts in the scattered wave can be used to identify the energy gamma(s) and the (spectra) of the nuclear source.
Market Opportunity
Gamma rays are very difficult to detect—especially remotely. The ability to detect a gamma ray is dependent on the flux of gammas, distance, the size of the detector crystal, and crystal composition. Since most gamma sources emit radiation isotropically, few gammas will be intercepted by a practical detector. Currently, the range to measure low signal-to-noise ratio signatures is very short (between 10 and 100 m). If the detector can be moved closer to the nuclear source—increasing its area of coverage—then it has a better chance of intercepting and detecting small numbers of gammas.
Features & Benefits
• The invention effectively moves the stimulus of the detector to the interaction medium where the collision effects are most probable and abundant. Further, the invention allows one to view a larger interaction region than any one crystal detector will allow. The stimulus is an intense, non-ionizing CW electromagnetic wave in the microwave frequency (between 1 and 10 GHz) with a large controllable field of view and field of focus.
• The properties of the gamma are hypothetically transferred to the recoil electron in the interacting medium through forward Compton Scattering and through inverse Compton scattering with the microwave stimulus, recorded in the frequency content of the scattered wave captured by an antenna. Many, if not all gamma detectors detect the recoil electrons. The invention detects the stimulated scattered electromagnet radiation from the recoil electron.