Determination of Carbon in Steels by Measurement of the Prompt γ-Radiation emitted during Proton Bombardment

Abstract

CONVENTIONAL techniques of activation analysis usually require the measurement, some time after the completion of the irradiation, of the radiation emitted by a radioactive nuclide manufactured during the irradiation, with or without prior separation of the radionuclide to be determined, and sensitive analytical methods have been devised for most elements using thermal neutrons as bombarding particles^1,2. However, for the light elements, low cross-sections and inconvenient half-lives of the product nuclides often preclude the use of thermal neutron irradiation as the basis of an analytical method, and charged particles, γ-protons^2,3, and neutrons of non-thermal energies⁴ have been used instead.