Talk:Gamma spectroscopy

Gamma Ray Classification
I believe the definition of 'gamma' and 'x-ray' have changed from the higher/lower energy photon to their point of origin (from a nucleus for gamma, electron shell for x-ray), including the x-ray and gamma ray wikipedia pages. 173.85.47.101 (talk) 11:04, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Retitle?
The title of the article should be Gamma Ray Spectrometry - after all when you are doing gamma ray spectrometry (I am a gamma spectrometrist...) you measure the intensity and not just the energy of the radiations. Compare to the definition of spectrometry excerpted from Wikipedia: "Spectrometry and spectrography are terms used to refer to the measurement of radiation intensity as a function of wavelength and are often used to describe experimental spectroscopic methods. Spectral measurement devices are referred to as spectrometers, spectrophotometers, spectrographs or spectral analyzers."

Bobcat167 (talk) 01:52, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

A note - there is also HPGe (High Purity Germanium), which is the most widely used high-energy resolution gamma ray detector used today. --142.90.99.29 23:54, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

An HPGe spectrum image
Since one of my students needs our HPGe detector cooled for Tuesday, I'm thinking about taking a spectrum of something to replace the image that was removed, but am not sure what would be best. I could just replace the Co60 spectrum that was removed (along with a spectrum from a 3x3 NaI), or I could replace it with a Cs137, in which case I might be able to show the X-ray splitting around 35 keV, or I could replace it something else entirely. --Constantine 09:32, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 07:53, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

An organizational suggestion?
The organization of this article needs improvement, in my opinion. The organization problem is not simplified by the existence of a parallel article, gamma ray spectrometer, which overlaps with it a good deal. On the other hand, we do have quite a bit of good material, it's just somewhat scattered, and having useful material helps.

I am thinking that it might be best to put the instrumental information into the "Gamma ray spectrometer" article, including general types (eg, scintillators and solid state detectors, etc), design issues and problems, detector response matrices, with links out to details of specific instrumental instances that are representative, or examples of the current state-of-the-art.

Then on the other hand, let this "Gamma-ray spectroscopy" article be more general: an overview of what the field of gamma-ray spectroscopy is about, its history, what it addresses, nuclear line sources, continuum sources, applications and research areas in nuclear physics, medicine, astrophysics, health physics, and environmental protection, forensics, weapons detection and interdiction, data analysis, and overall systems design in which the detector itself is just one component of the whole, etc (obviously not in the above order; I'm just typing as they come to mind).

Does this overall scheme sound like a good idea? My central idea is just to move material around to fit the existing article titles more accurately, and then try to improve the organization within each of those two articles, with the notion that the subject of detector hardware and technology is so big it does really need a dedicated article anyhow, so that the partition between "detector hardware" and "everything else" may make sense.

Based on previous experience, I don't really expect a huge amount of response to this comment, but after a decent interval I may just take off on it if I hear no objections or better suggestions. I have posted a similar message on the talk page of the other article. Thanks Wwheaton (talk) 05:26, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Sounds good, go for it!TimothyRias (talk) 09:43, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Rename and Merge with gamma ray spectrometer per mass spectrometer/mass spectrometry, gas chromatograph/gas chromatography, electron microscope/electron microscopy, etc. The first two redirect the technique to the instrument, but the last goes the other way, so it would be your pick. --Kkmurray (talk) 18:49, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

Technical terms ("Channel")
Currently, the article likes to talk about detector channels and data aquisition, but seems to be missing the principle on how gamma rays of different energy can be differentiated at all. I will try to rebalance this a bit, especially the "System components and principle of operation in components" secion. --Lpd-Lbr (talk) 14:35, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Suggestions (data acquisition and spectrum features)
The data acquisition section needs to be edited for flow. In particular the second and third paragraph look like they were copy-pasted and not well incorporated into the section. (note the paragraph ending in a colon with no follow-up...)

Since spectrum features such as the backscatter and escape peaks are discussed, it may make sense to expand this section to discuss the rest of the possible features of a gamma-ray spectrum: the full energy peak, sum peaks, the Compton edge and continuum, and characteristic x-rays from the detector housing etc. If someone else doesn't pick this up, I will get around to making the edits myself. Maicany (talk) 05:33, 15 November 2023 (UTC)