ALPHA BETA(GAMMA RAY) DISCRIMINATION AND SPILLOVER QUANTIFICATION WITH A BAF2 SCINTILLATOR/

A simple pulse shape discrimination technique was used to separate alp ha and beta(gamma ray) interactions in a BaF2 scintillator. The separa tion was not ideal, resulting in a 5.1% spillover of alpha interaction s into the beta(gamma ray) channel and 11.9% spillover of beta(gamma r ay) interactions into the alpha channel for a set pulse shape discrimi nator. The misclassification of events was reduced by post-processing the data using either a simple analytical technique or a more complex linear least squares technique. Both techniques typically reduced the difference between the expected and calculated interaction rates to <1 0% when the ratio of beta(gamma ray) to alpha count rate was less than 100:1.