Patent ID: 7266178

Claim:
A method for calibrating energy response of x-ray and gamma-ray detectors in order to provide for determining an energy characterizing an incident photon of otherwise unknown energy, the method comprising: enclosing a polarizable crystal characterized by a temperature within a partial vacuum in a hermetically sealed enclosure; inducing a voltage between one face of the crystal and a foil held at an electrical potential different from that of the face of the crystal; interposing a target between the face of the crystal and the detector for generating characteristic x-rays of specified energies; accelerating charged particles between the foil and the face of the crystal so that the charged particles impinge upon one of the face of the crystal and the foil to generate penetrating radiation of known energy characteristics; directing the penetrating radiation onto a penetrating radiation detector thereby generating a detector signal; and calibrating the detector signal on the basis of the detector signal and the known energy characteristics of the penetrating radiation, such that the energy characterizing the incident photon of otherwise unknown energy is determined solely on the basis of the foregoing procedure.