Experimental Investigation of M-Subshell Fluorescence Yields and of the L sub 1 -L sub 3 Radiative Transition in Neptunium and Curium from the Radioactive Decays of sup 241 Am and sup 249 Cf

摘要

The construction and performance of a wall-less multiwire proportional counter (MWPC) is described. The absolute emission rate of M x rays from a sup 241 Am source was measured with the MWPC and with a single-wire proportional counter and a value of (6.35 +- 0.60) x 10 sup -2 M x rays per decay, or (0.470 +- 0.045) M x rays per L/sub alpha / x ray is obtained. High resolution Ge(Li) and Si(Li) x-ray spectrometers and the multiwire proportional counter (MWPC) were used for measuring coincidences, respectively, between various L x rays and the M x rays of neptunium (Z = 93) from a sup 241 Am source. In addition, M x rays of curium from a sup 249 Cf source were measured with a Si(Li) detector in coincidence with various K and L x rays detected with a Ge(Li) spectrometer. 81 refs., 24 figs., 23 tabs.