Development of a Microwave-based Radiation Detector

In the phase I portion of this project, Sentor Technologies Inc. successfully demonstrated the feasibility of developing and commercializing the first entirely optical semiconductor-based gamma radiation spectrometer. This new radiation detectortechnology utilizes microwave photons instead of electrons to carry the signal out of the semiconductor and, therefore, solves the fundamental charge collection problem that has limited the performance of conventional spectrometers. This new technologycombines the speed and convenience of a photonic device with the conversion efficiency and statistics of a semiconductor. In the phase II project period, a prototype detector will be built, tested and commercialized.New optical-based components andtechnologies have revolutionized various industries including telecommunications, information storage and computer hardware. The new optical gamma radiation spectrometer described in this proposal has the potential to provide order of magnitude scaleperformance improvements over the baseline technology and will have numerous commercial applications including environmental characterization, military surveillance, geological exploration and nuclear medicine.