The performances of various reflector geometries, light coupling liquids, photomultiplier tubes, preamplifiers and linear amplifiers were compared and the configuration found that optimized the combination of pulse-height resolution and pulse-shape discrimination. The best combination used a hemispherical reflector, filled with distilled water, coupled to an 8575 photomultiplier tube, the output of which was conditioned by a special integrating preamplifier and a double-delay-line linear amplifier. Careful choice of the scintillator, sample preparation procedures, and electronic apparatus can produce liquid-scintillation alpha spectroscopy with a pulse-height resolution of 300 keV, or less, and, by using pulse-shape discrimination, background levels as low as 0.01 countslmin.
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