Abstract
The techniques researched, developed and applied towards the measurement of radioisotope concentrations at ultra-low levels in the real-time solar neutrino experiment BOREXINO at Gran Sasso are presented and illustrated with specific results of widespread interest. We report the use of low-level germanium gamma spectrometry, low-level miniaturized gas proportional counters and low background scintillation detectors developed in solar neutrino research. Each now sets records in its field. We additionally describe our techniques of radiochemical ultra-pure, few atom manipulations and extractions. Forefront measurements also result from the powerful combination of neutron activation and low-level counting. Finally, with our techniques and commercially available mass spectrometry and atomic absorption spectroscopy, new low-level detection limits for isotopes of interest are obtained.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-25 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Astroparticle Physics |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2002 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We sincerely thank the funding agencies: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare [INFN] (Italy); National Science Foundation [NSF] (USA); Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie [BMBF], Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DFG] (Germany). We acknowledge the very generous support given to our work by the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso [LNGS] (Italy).