Response of Superheated Emulsion Detectors to low energy alpha irradiation

Superheated Emulsion Detectors (SED) are traditionally employed in the detection of neutrons. In this work the focus is on the detection of alpha particles for an eventual alpha spectrometer using C2ClF5 as the target liquid. The alpha-droplet interaction is examined via computational studies, and a geometric model developed to describe the anticipated detector response. Experiments with alpha-emitting uranium- and samarium-doped SEDs at temperatures of 5-12 ºC confirm that the event rate is related to the size of the droplets, and are in model agreement for temperatures below 8 ºC; above this temperature, the acoustic sensitivity is reduced by signal attenuation as a result of the increasing bubble population, for which the addition of an attenuation coefficient restores the agreement with experiment. The results suggest an SED-based alpha spectrometer.