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Howe, Russell A.

Publications and source records attributed to Howe, Russell A..

8 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

MCNP Estimate of ZLS Lens Sensitivity in an X-Ray Field

The telecentric zoom lens system (ZLS) has proven to be invaluable in flash x-ray field operations and recent successful experiments pertaining to stockpile stewardship. The ZLS contains 11 custom-manufactured lenses, a turning mirror (pellicle), and an x-ray-to-visible-light converting scintillator. Images are recorded on a fully characterized CCD. All hardware is supported by computerized, programmable, electro-mechanical mounts and alignment apparatus. Seven different glass material types varying in chemical stoichiometry comprise the 11 ZLS lenses. All lenses within the ZLS are out of the path of direct x-ray radiation during normal operation. However, any unshielded scattered x-ray radiation can result in energy deposition into the lenses, which may generate some scintillating light that can couple into the CCD. This extra light may contribute to a decrease in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and lower the overall fidelity of the radiograph images.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

MCNP Estimate of ZLS Lens Sensitivity in an X-Ray Field

The telecentric zoom lens system (ZLS) has proven to be invaluable in flash x-ray field operations and recent successful experiments pertaining to stockpile stewardship. The ZLS contains 11 custom-manufactured lenses, a turning mirror (pellicle), and an x-ray-to-visible-light converting scintillator. Images are recorded on a fully characterized CCD. All hardware is supported by computerized, programmable, electro-mechanical mounts and alignment apparatus. Seven different glass material types varying in chemical stoichiometry comprise the 11 ZLS lenses. All lenses within the ZLS are out of the path of direct x-ray radiation during normal operation. However, any unshielded scattered x-ray radiation can result in energy deposition into the lenses, which may generate some scintillating light that can couple into the CCD. This extra light may contribute to a decrease in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and lower the overall fidelity of the radiograph images. An estimate of the scintillation generation and sensitivities for each of the seven types of glass used as lenses in the ZLS is presented. This report also includes estimates of the total observed background decoupling that each of the lens material types contribute.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Scintillator Efficiency Study with MeV X-Rays

We have investigated scintillator efficiency for MeV radiographic imaging. This paper discusses the modeled detection efficiency and measured brightness of a number of scintillator materials. An optical imaging camera records images of scintillator emission excited by a pulsed x-ray machine. The efficiency of various thicknesses of monolithic LYSO:Ce (cerium-doped lutetium yttrium orthosilicate) are being studied to understand brightness and resolution trade-offs compared with a range of micro-columnar CsI:Tl (thallium-doped cesium iodide) scintillator screens. The micro-columnar scintillator structure apparently provides an optical gain mechanism that results in brighter signals from thinner samples. The trade-offs for brightness versus resolution in monolithic scintillators is straightforward. For higher-energy x-rays, thicker materials generally produce brighter signal due to x-ray absorption and the optical emission properties of the material. However, as scintillator thickness is increased, detector blur begins to dominate imaging system resolution due to the volume image generated in the scintillator thickness and the depth of field of the imaging system. We employ a telecentric optical relay lens to image the scintillator onto a recording CCD camera. The telecentric lens helps provide sharp focus through thicker-volume emitting scintillators. Stray light from scintillator emission can also affect the image scene contrast. We have applied an optical light scatter model to the imaging system to minimize scatter sources and maximize scene contrasts.

scintillator, radiography, CCD camera, hard x-ray,↗