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 Post subject: Geiger counter app for smartphones
PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:01 am 
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I'm sharing this fun app because I think it's quite smart

Radioactivity Counter (by Rolf-Dieter Klein)

It's not very sensitive and it's slow, but nothing is required besides dowloading the app (for a few bucks) and taping a thin piece of opaque material over your phone's camera.

Official website: https://rdklein.de/html/radioactivity.html

Tutorial: https://youtu.be/qJcOq5sLxPo

Review: https://youtu.be/rNe1UBfJvoo


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 Post subject: Re: Geiger counter app for smartphones
PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 6:56 pm 
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I wonder if the sensitivity could be improved with a small scintillator crystal placed underneath the black paper?


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 Post subject: Re: Geiger counter app for smartphones
PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2022 2:06 pm 
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David, please explain with a bit more detail.
Thanks :smt099


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 Post subject: Re: Geiger counter app for smartphones
PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:54 pm 
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Some crystals (organic or inorganic) are known to exhibit luminescence ("scintillate") when exposed to ionizing radiation, and are thus called scintillator crystals. Such crystals are notably used in radiation detection devices known as scintillation counters. The luminescent screens in spinthariscopes are also sprinkled with similar compounds.


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 Post subject: Re: Geiger counter app for smartphones
PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2022 1:25 am 
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They're hyperfluorescent, and though they're often used to detect x-rays or gamma rays they will often also react to UV or even visible light, giving you cool glowing materials. Ce:YAG is a classic example but there are others. A lot of the synthetic gems I sell are industrial scintillator offcuts (LuAG, GAGG and LYSO). So it might be possible to polish up a thin wafer of one and put one right in front of the camera to enhance that response by converting invisible radiation to visible.

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