A new method to stabilize scintillation detectors using a miniature X-ray generator

The approach of the scheme is to pile-up X-ray photons on the scintillator to generate a high energy peak in the spectrum. The system includes a miniature X-ray generator, a brass disk with a thin slit rotated by a motor and placed in front of the X-ray window, and a collimator placed in front of the scintillation detector to reduce the time of alignment between the scintillation detector and the X-ray generator. The rotating brass disk placed between the X-ray source and the collimator is deployed as a high-frequency obturator. lf, during a time duration lower than the integration time of the scintillation detector, a large number of photons interact with the scintillator, the energy is added and the spectrometer records this energy as the contribution of a high energy single photon. Experimental results underlines a tangible proof of concept for a self-calibration device, which will be valuable for the correction of the temperature drift in the scintillator-photomultiplier pair.