Positron Lifetime Spectroscopy

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Positron Sources

Typically positrons are produced through Beta Decay. A typical source would be ²²Na, sodium-22.

Positron Behaviour in Materials

Typically positrons will thermalize, slow down, very quickly in a material. This means that they barely penetrate the surface of most materials. After thermalization, the positron will diffuse around the material, interacting with any defects, electromagnetic distortions or potential wells, they encounter. This may result in a change of the positron's state, collapsing its wave function and reducing the instantaneous chance of electron-positron annihilation. This will change the characteristic lifetime (in some ways similar to mean lifetime of the positron, which affects the lifetime spectra produced in experiment.

Simulation

Recently a program named SimPL has been produced at the University of Prince Edward Island, PEI, Canada, which attempts to simulate the positron interaction and model the output spectra.

See also

• Positron