Camera nuclear-radiation sensor: part I

In previous posts I've described a radioactivity detector based on a photodiodes. Image sensors in cameras use photoelements too, so I think that they could be also used to detect radioactivity. At this moment i didn't success in this , nevertheless I will describe here my attempts.

I'm using RaspbberyPI, to get data from the sensor, camera is some low-budget/quality clone designed for RaspberryPI. I have removed optics, and covered whole camera in black tape to block any light coming to the sensor. It's visible on the picture below.

To handle the camera on the software side, I'm using Python script (with PiCamera library). In infinitive loop it takes a photo and calculate sum of pixels value and then sums values of each RGB channel. This value with timestamp is put to CSV file that is later parsed to diagrams using R script.

Without any sample, internal noise of the sensor (and maybe background radiation) should give after some time (e.g. after a couple of hours) a Gaussian curve on the histogram. After putting measured sample to the sensor and waiting similar period, a new Gaussian curve would appear, so that the histogram would have to visible peaks. That was my assumption, hit would prove that the sensor works, however as visible below it doesn't - there is only one peek.

I will try to better isolate the sensor also from electromagnetic noise or maybe buy a new camera (less noisy). Other than that I don't have ideas to make it works.

4 comments:

  1. Which radiation source are you using?
    Alpha particles (He nuclei) are stopped with a sheet of paper, beta (electrons) by metal foil.

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    Replies
    1. I'm using an old compass with radium paint, it should emit a bit of gamma rays.

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    2. Interesting, indeed the compass should emit even if it doesn't produce light anymore:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_dials#Safety


      I found the following researches:
      https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2012/Auzinger_2012_GeigerCam/
      https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.0766

      They look quite similar to what you are trying to do and I cannot see any major difference to explain your results.
      Since you are trying to measure a really small effect I'd try:
      1) to max out the gain-related options (knowing that the thermal noise increase should widen the histogram)
      2) to change the source with something stronger


      Good luck! :)

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