New Experimental Approach to the Detection of Positron Annihilation in Flight Process

J. Dryzek Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN, Radzikowskiego 152, 31-342 Kraków, Poland, and, Institute of Physics, University of Zielona Góra, Prof. Szafrana 4a, 65-516 Zielona Góra, Poland

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Received: 3 09 2007;

Positron annihilation in flight, when mainly positron contributes to the energy and momentum of the annihilating pair, is rarely observed in condensed matter due to its small probability. Additionally, this process does not manifest itself by any characteristic features, which would help in observation. Hence, our knowledge about that process is poor. In the paper we propose the new experimental method which allows us to detect this process. We applied the conventional positron lifetime spectrometer, which after changing photon energy ranges and layout of detectors was suitable for that detection. The first measurements allow us to estimate that in pure aluminum almost 4.76% of all implanted positrons from isotope source 22Na annihilate in flight.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.113.1339 PACS numbers: 78.70.Bj, 07.85.-m