Compton profile measurements by use of solid state detector

It is practically impossible to measure the Compton profile of any heavy material, because its strong absorption very much reduces the intensity. This difficulty has been overcome by use of a non-dispersive solid state detector (SSD) together with γ-rays or high energy X-rays, because the effective intensity in this case becomes 102 to 104 times stronger than with the conventional dispersive crystal analyser. As for the energy resolution, the ratio of the profile width to the resolution of an SSD can be made comparable with the conventional case by choosing a suitable radioactive γ-ray source. The preliminary measurements have already shown very promising results and suggest various applications feasible only by this innovation.