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US 8,785,841 B1Granted
Scintillation detector package having radioactive window therein
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorsKenneth E. Stephenson, Wolfgang Ziegler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A scintillator package includes a housing, with a scintillator in the housing to scintillate when struck by radiation. A window seals an end of the housing to permit light emitted during a scintillation to exit the housing. The window comprises a radioactive material that is non-scintillating, and this radioactive material may be naturally occurring, such as lutetium.
Claims21
A scintillator package comprising:
- a housing;
- a scintillator in the housing to scintillate when struck by radiation;
- and
- a window sealing an end of the housing to permit light emitted during a scintillation to exit the housing,
- wherein the window comprises a radioactive material that is non-scintillating.
2 more elements
A well logging instrument for logging a formation comprising:
- a radiation source to emit outgoing radiation into the formation;
- a radiation detector comprising
- a scintillator housing;
- a scintillator in the scintillator housing to scintillate when struck by incoming radiation from the formation, the incoming radiation resulting from interactions between the outgoing radiation and the formation;
- a window sealing an end of the scintillator housing to permit light emitted during a scintillation to exit the housing, wherein the window comprises a radioactive material that is non-scintillating and naturally occurring;
- a photodetector optically coupled to the scintillator housing;
- and
- processing circuitry coupled to the photodetector to determine at least one property of the formation based upon scintillations resulting from the incoming radiation from the formation striking the scintillator, and to perform gain stabilization based upon scintillations resulting from radiation emitted by the radioactive material of the window striking the scintillator.
5 more elements
A method of logging a formation having a borehole therein comprising:
- lowering a well logging instrument into the borehole;
- detecting incoming radiation from the formation using a radiation detector carried by the well logging instrument, the radiation detector comprising a detector housing with a scintillator therein;
- gain stabilizing the radiation detector based upon detecting scintillations of the scintillator caused by radiation emitted by a window of the radiation detector that optically couples the scintillator to a photodetector, using gain stabilization circuitry, the window comprising a radioactive, non-scintillating, and naturally occurring material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.