The WinALPHA code for the analysis of alpha-particle spectra
Introduction
WinALPHA is a software package for the analysis of alpha-particle spectra taken with semiconductor detectors. It is intended to provide a state-of-the-art tool for training and as a beginning software. It has been developed in the frame of a Coordinated Research Programme of the International Atomic Energy Agency (Development and Applications of Alpha-Particle Spectrometry).
WinALPHA features a Windows-based Graphical User Interface and is written in C++, except the fitting engines, which are written in FORTRAN. It can be downloaded from the server of the Physics Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency. http://www.iaea.org/programmes/ripc/physics/software.
The program performs a non-linear fit of alpha-particle spectra and computes the areas and positions of the selected peaks. The calculation of the uncertainties is based on the covariance matrix of the fitting.
WinALPHA has a built-in help that guides the user and includes a “how to” section.
Section snippets
Main WinALPHA features
Being a general-purpose code, WinALPHA represents a compromise between ease of operation, stability and performances. Some of its most important features are:
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Powerful tools for importing data files of various formats.
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A new analytical model to describe alpha peaks.
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A database of energies and emission probabilities for the most common alpha emitters.
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A minimization algorithm able to provide both peak intensities and positions as well as their corresponding uncertainties.
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Specific units of code for
Conclusions
The tests indicate that WinALPHA is a useful tool to perform basic spectral analysis in alpha-particle spectrometry. It is a user-friendly code, with good numerical stability and implements all basic functions with a good overall performance.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to Ulf Rosengard from the Physics Section, IAEA, for his interest in the development of this code. This work was partially financed by IAEA, under Research Contract 11254.
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Alpha spectrometry
2020, Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis: Volume 1: Radiation Physics and DetectorsA comparison of different peak shapes for deconvolution of alpha-particle spectra
2016, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated EquipmentCitation Excerpt :If n is the number of alpha peaks identified in the measured spectrum, the total number of parameters in the fitting procedure will be 2n+s (Appendix A). The minimization is carried out using the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm [21,22] as commonly adopted in similar works e.g., [23–26] whose performance and limitations were discussed in detail by García-Toraño [7]. In the following analysis, two values are considered consistent with each other if their difference is less than twice the sum of their associated uncertainties (∼95% confidence level).
Measurement of <sup>233</sup>U/<sup>234</sup>U ratios in contaminated groundwater using alpha spectrometry
2016, Journal of Environmental RadioactivityCitation Excerpt :The role of AMS in the work described in the present paper is to validate the U ratios calculated using the alpha peak deconvolution. There are a number of alpha spectra deconvolution codes available including ADAM (Ihantola et al., 2011), BEST (Pommé and Caro Marroyo, 2015) and WinALPHA (Noy et al., 2004) and good summaries are provided by both García-Toraño (2006) and Vajda et al. (2012). The IAEA conducted an intercomparison exercise (IAEA, 1999) on four commercially available alpha software programs AlphaVision (EG&G Ortec, USA), Alps (Westmeier, GmbH, GE), Genie™ 2000 (Canberra Industries Inc., USA) and Winner Alpha (Eurisys Measures, FR) while Hurtado et al. (2008) have compared the Genie™ 2000 and WinALPHA codes.
Nuclear Data Sheets for A = 238
2015, Nuclear Data SheetsDetermination of <sup>239</sup>Pu/<sup>240</sup>Pu isotopic ratio by high-resolution alpha-particle spectrometry using the ADAM program
2012, Applied Radiation and IsotopesCitation Excerpt :Determination of 239Pu and 240Pu isotopic ratios have been investigated in a number of scientific papers (for example Srinivasan et al., 2006, LaMont et al., 1998, León Vintró et al., 1996, Bortels et al., 1996, Bortels et al., 1995, Raab and Parus, 1994). Unfolding the 239Pu/240Pu multiplet is considered as a “challenging problem for any analysis program” (Capote Noy et al., 2004). In addition to the above mentioned isotopes there are other important (pairs of) radionuclides, such as 238Pu and 241Am, that are difficult to identify unambiguously using alpha spectrometry because of limited energy resolution (Aggarwal and Alamelu, 2007).
Alpha Spectrometry
2012, Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis