Liquid scintillation counting: A valuable tool to determine half-lives

Abstract

In the past two decades, the radionuclide metrology group at PTB has carried out a number of half-life determinations using liquid scintillation counting. The half-lives, which were often determined in collaboration with other institutions, range from a few ten nanoseconds (e.g., 86 keV level of 233Pa) to several billion years (e.g., 87Rb). This review aims to give an overview of the various half-life determination techniques that have been used and to demonstrate the great potential of liquid scintillation counting as an experimental tool for such measurements.