Sub-eV uncertainties on gamma-ray energies using a magnetic microcalorimeter - Potential new reference energies

Abstract

We present new measurements of 27 gamma-ray energies ranging from 14 keV to 136 keV, obtained using magnetic microcalorimeters for energy-dispersive spectrometry. The spectrometer has eight pixels and achieves a high energy resolution between 15 eV and 30 eV across the entire energy range. It faces a cryogenic source sampler with four movable sources, each containing a mixture of radionuclides, including ${}^{169}\mathrm{Yb}$ and ${}^{57}\mathrm{Co}$. Four gamma-ray lines from ${}^{169}\mathrm{Yb}$and one from 57Co were used to calibrate the spectrometer and correct for its non-linearity in the energy range 14 keV - 130 keV. The gamma-ray energies, emitted through the decay of ${}^{57}\mathrm{Co}$, ${}^{109}\mathrm{Cd}$, ${}^{133}\mathrm{Ba}$, ${}^{153}\mathrm{Gd}$, ${}^{154}\mathrm{Eu}$, ${}^{155}\mathrm{Eu}$, ${}^{169}\mathrm{Yb}$, ${}^{170}\mathrm{Tm}$, ${}^{210}\mathrm{Pb}$, ${}^{239}\mathrm{Np}$, ${}^{241}\mathrm{Am}$ and ${}^{243}\mathrm{Am}$, have been reassessed. This work significantly reduces the uncertainties upon previously reported gamma energies obtained by energy-dispersive spectrometry using semiconductor detectors: the lowest absolute uncertainty achieved is 0.13 eV at 105.3 keV, which corresponds to a relative uncertainty of 1.3 ppm. With respect to the available literature, among the 27 measured gamma-ray lines, the uncertainties of 10 energies were reduced by a factor of 5, while those of 4 additional energies were reduced by more than one order of magnitude.

28 pages, 14 figures 3 tables, 2 annexes