Physics and Engineering of Radiation Detection

Physics and Engineering of Radiation Detection presents an overview of the physics of radiation detection and its applications. It covers the origins and properties of different kinds of ionizing radiation, their detection and measurement, and the procedures used to protect people and the environment from their potentially harmful effects. It details the experimental techniques and instrumentation used in different detection systems in a very practical way without sacrificing the physics content. It provides useful formulae and explains methodologies to solve problems related to radiation measurements. With abundance of worked-out examples and end-of-chapter problems, this book enables the reader to understand the underlying physical principles and their applications. Detailed discussions on different detection media, such as gases, liquids, liquefied gases, semiconductors, and scintillators make this book an excellent source of information for students as well as professionals working in related fields. Chapters on statistics, data analysis techniques, software for data analysis, and data acquisition systems provide the reader with necessary skills to design and build practical systems and perform data analysis.

Ionizing radiation and its detection and measurement is a foundational subject in science and it has wide numbers of students taking courses in the subject. In physics it's usually taught at an undergraduate level (third and fourth year) while students of Nuclear Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or Medical Physics could take this course at an undergraduate as well as graduate level. This book concentrates on the core material appropriate for Undergraduates, Researchers, administrators, and graduate students in radiation studies, health physics, environmental sciences, nuclear engineering, medical physics, and other fields involved with ionizing radiation.

A significant retail market is directors of labs and safety officers in a scientific labs, from physics, chemistry, biology, geology and astronomy, and even physiology, who need to monitor radiation for local safety reasons. All of these labs use equipment that generates or detects ionizing radiation (X-rays, lasers, geiger counters).