Measurement of pattern recognition efficiency of tracks generated by ionizing radiation in a Medipix2 device

Several experiments were performed to establish the Medipix2 device capabilities for track recognition and its efficiency at measuring fluxes. A Medipix2 device was exposed to (241)Am, (106)Ru and (137)Cs radioactive sources, separately and simultaneously. It was also exposed to heavy particle beams (protons and alpha-particles), recoiled on a gold foil to reduce the incoming flux and allow the study of the detector response struck by incoming particles at different incidence angles. For three proton beams (400 key, 4 and 10 MeV), the device was exposed to the radioactive sources on top of beam, giving a mixed radiation field. To test the reliability of track recognition with this device, the activities of the radioactive sources were extracted from the experimental data and compared to the expected activities. Rotation of the Medipix2 device allowed the test of the heavy tracks recognition at different incidence angles. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.