page_title: Gamma spectroscopy
section_title: Gamma ray characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Gamma spectroscopy / Gamma ray characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: Gamma spectrum of the shown Uranium ore with the typical isotopes of the Uranium-Radium decay line 226Ra, 214Pb, 214Bi. In the gammaspectrum, the alpha emitter Uraium itself is obviously not shown. The 40K (Potassium-40) does not originate from the mineral. Deutsch: Gammaspektum des oben dargestellten Uranerz Gesteines mit den typischen Isotopen der Uran-Radium-Reihe wie 226Ra, 214Pb, 214Bi. Im Gammaspektrum taucht der Alpha-Strahler 238U natürlich nicht auf. Das 40K kommt nicht aus dem Urangestein, sondern ist natürlich in der Umwelt vorhanden. Français&#160;: Spectre gamma d'un minerai d'uranium, permet d'identifier la présence des radionucléides 226Ra, 214Pb, 214Bi de la fr:chaîne de désintégration de l'Uranium-238 (lui-même non émetteur gamma). La raie 40K n'est pas liée à l'uranium, mais au potassium naturellement présent dans l'environnement.
context_page_description: Gamma-ray spectroscopy is the quantitative study of the energy spectra of gamma-ray sources, such as in the nuclear industry, geochemical investigation, and astrophysics.
  Most radioactive sources produce gamma rays, which are of various energies and intensities. When these emissions are detected and analyzed with a spectroscopy system, a gamma-ray energy spectrum can be produced.
  A detailed analysis of this spectrum is typically used to determine the identity and quantity of gamma emitters present in a gamma source, and is a vital tool in radiometric assay. The gamma spectrum is characteristic of the gamma-emitting nuclides contained in the source, just as in optical spectroscopy, the optical spectrum is characteristic of the material contained in a sample.
context_section_description: Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of electromagnetic radiation, being physically the same as all other forms (e.g., X rays, visible light, infrared, radio) but having (in general) higher photon energy due to their shorter wavelength.  Because of this, the energy of gamma-ray photons can be resolved individually, and a gamma-ray spectrometer can measure and display the energies of the gamma-ray photons detected.
  Radioactive nuclei (radionuclides) commonly emit gamma rays in the energy range from a few keV to ~10 MeV, corresponding to the typical energy levels in nuclei with reasonably long lifetimes.  Such sources typically produce gamma-ray "line spectra" (i.e., many photons emitted at discrete energies), whereas much higher energies (upwards of 1 TeV) may occur in the continuum spectra observed in astrophysics and elementary particle physics. The boundary between gamma rays and X rays is somewhat blurred, as X rays typically refer to the high energy electronic emission of atoms, which may extend to over 100 keV, whereas the lowest energy emissions of nuclei are typically termed gamma rays, even though their energies may be below 20 keV.
caption: The gamma-ray spectrum of natural uranium, showing about a dozen discrete lines superimposed on a smooth continuum, allows one to identify the nuclides  226
  Ra
  , 214
  Pb
  , and 214
  Bi
   of the uranium decay chain.
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