Experiment 21.

Alpha Particles

Updated by MD and IF May 8, 2017

1 Important Notice

Experiment 21 consist of two independent parts: Alpha Spectroscopy and Alpha Scattering.
The first part Alpha Scattering includes a task which needs to be run overnight. The hardware
and software being used for each part of the experiment are independent of each other so you
can decide to do both parts in parallel, thereby more effectively utilising the time in which
you will be waiting during for data collection to complete. In this case reserve some space in
your logbook for the skipped activity to keep your notes in order.

2 Safety First

During this experiment we are using radioactive sources. All of them are well shielded or are of
low intensity, nevertheless you should avoid any unnecessary exposure by keeping away from
the sources (r 2 dependence) and limit the time you are in close proximity to them.
212 S ENIOR P HYSICS L ABORATORY

Alpha Spectroscopy

3 Objectives

The aim of this experiment is to investigate energies of alpha particles produced by radioactive
sources, and observe the energy losses when alpha particles pass through a medium.

4 Introduction

Alpha particles (shorthand ) consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together by the
strong nuclear forces. It is a helium-4 nucleus (e.g. doubly ionised helium atom). In our
experiment those particles are produced in nuclear decay reactions. After they stop in the matter
they capture two electrons and become helium atoms. An alpha particle is very stable and in
our experiment we ignore its internal structure and consider it to be a simple, doubly charged
particle. This also can be extended to alpha particles inside the parent nucleus. In classical
physics, alpha particles do not have enough energy to escape from the potential well inside the
nucleus. The quantum tunnelling effect however allows alphas to penetrate the potential barrier
formed by the strong nuclear force and the repulsive Coulomb electromagnetic force due to the
nucleus positive charge. Alpha decay occurs when the alpha particle penetrates this barrier
and is then repelled by the Coulomb force.

5 Alpha Spectroscopy Apparatus

The equipment we will be using in this experiment consists of a vacuum chamber with a semi-
conductor detector, a pre-amplifier, a multi-channel analyser, and a computer with data acqui-
sition software.

The vacuum chamber is made of stainless steel and houses an adjustable table to enable an
alpha source to be placed at the required distance from the detector. Vacuum is needed to avoid
energy losses when the alpha particle travels through an air. At atmospheric pressure as little
as 35 mm of air can stop 5 MeV alphas.

Surface barrier detectors are semiconductor devices designed so that a p-n junction is located
close to the detectors surface. The junction is reverse-biased so that all electric current carriers
(electrons and holes) are thus removed from the depleted layer and no current flows through
the detector. When an alpha particle hits the detector it loses its energy by ionising atoms in
the depleted layer producing free electrons and holes. At this time a small electric current goes
through the detector, which produces a change of potential across the resistor which supplies
bias voltage to the detector. This small signal is amplified by the pre-amplifier and then fed to
the multi-channel analyser. The detector is Passivated Implanted Planar Silicon (PIPS) model
PD 25-10-500 AM manufactured by CANBERRA. The main parameters of this detector are:
active area 25 mm2 , resolution 10 keV, and depletion depth 500 m. Maximum bias voltage for
this detector is +100 V, but we are using +80 V which is enough for full depletion.

The multi-channel analyser (MCA) analyses a stream of voltage pulses and sorts them into a
A LPHA PARTICLES 213

histogram of the number of events, versus pulse-height. The height of the pulse is related to
the energy which is deposited in the detector by charged particle. In case of an alpha particle
total kinetic energy is usually deposited in the detector and pulse height is proportional to
this energy 1 . In our experiment we are using a MCA of type: UNIVERSAL COMPUTER
SPECTROMETER UCS 30 manufactured by SPECTECH. This MCA has a maximum of 2048
channels (pulse height bins of the histogram), variable gain, switched polarity of the input
pulses, and a high voltage power supply. It also supplies power for the pre-amplifier and is
connected to the computer through a USB port. MCA settings are controlled and data received
from the UCS 30 by a Spectrum Techniques USX version 1.2 computer application.

The sources used in the experiment are labelled: AMR33, AMR13, and RA226. These sources
are weak and not dangerous when used carefully, but to avoid contaminating yourself with
radioactive material under no circumstances touch their surface.

6 Instrument calibration

The pulses produced by the detector by the mono-energetic alphas are not exactly equal and
follow an approximately normal distribution. We can assign the mean of this distribution to the
energy of the alpha particles. The process of assigning alpha particles energy to the channel
number is called calibration. In our experiment we will use the AMR13 source which is pure
americium-241 isotope for calibration.

Procedure
Place the AMR13 source in the vacuum chamber, check that the air inlet valve is closed,
and evacuate the chamber.
Switch on the MCA.
The MCA is controlled and the output displayed using a program called USX. Open
USX. Open the Mode menu and check that PHA Amp In is ticked.
Go to the Settings menu of USX, open the HighVoltage/Amp/ADC dialogue box, and
check if the settings are those shown on Fig. 21-1.
After 15 min of pumping air from the chamber, the pressure should be low enough
to start taking spectrum of the AMR13. Start data acquisition by clicking on the green
circle at the left of the Tool Bar.
Acquire the spectrum for 20 minutes. Acquisition may be stopped by clicking on the red
circle in the Tool Bar.
Save the spectrum to the file.
In AMR13 spectrum display find the channel which shows maximum number of counts.
This channel is corresponding to energy of alpha particles equals 5485.56 keV.
From USX menu select Settings Energy Calibration 2 Point Calibrate (or use
Ctrl and 2 keys combination). Then follow the calibration procedure using keV
as energy units, channel 0 and energy 0 as Point 1, and channel of highest number of
counts and energy 5485.56 keV as Point 2. The channel number along the x-axis of the
1
Even if all alpha particles, which hit the detector, deposit the same amount of energy, resulting voltage pulses
are not of exactly the same height and usually produce a histogram the shape of which is close to a normal (Gaussian)
distribution. We will assign mean position of the peak to the alpha particle energy for calibrating the instrument.
 214 S ENIOR P HYSICS L ABORATORY

spectrum will be replaced by the energy corresponding to each channel. Your instrument
is now calibrated!

Fig. 21-1 Recommended MCA settings.

C1

7 Energy loss in air

An alpha particle moving through a medium interacts with it very strongly because of its elec-
tric charge of +2 e and its relatively slow movement even at large energies (6 MeV alphas stop
in air in less than 50 mm). The mean stopping range of alphas in both air and gold as a function
of energy is given in Table 21-1.

Procedure
Stop the vacuum pump and open the air inlet.
 A LPHA PARTICLES 215

Acquire an AMR13 spectrum at atmospheric pressure for 20 min.

From a saved spectrum, determine the energy of the alpha particles that reach the detec-
tor.
Using data from the Table 21-1, find the mean stopping range corresponding to this en-
ergy2 .
Similarly find the mean stopping range for alphas of energy 5485.56 keV (i.e. alphas
emitted by the AMR13 source).
From these data determine the distance between the source and the detector. Check the
validity of your result with a ruler. Under no circumstances touch the surface of the
detector which is 1 mm below the detectors case.

Question 1: Justify the method being used to find the distance between the source and the
detector.

Energy/keV Range in air/mm Range in gold/m

1000 5.29 1.44
1250 6.41 1.76
1500 7.63 2.09
1750 8.96 2.42
2000 10.40 2.77
2250 11.96 3.14
2500 13.62 3.53
2750 15.40 3.94
3000 17.27 4.36
3500 21.35 5.25
4000 25.84 6.21
4500 30.71 7.21
5000 35.97 8.27
5500 41.61 9.39
6000 47.62 10.55
6500 53.99 11.77
7000 60.73 13.03
7500 67.81 14.34
8000 75.24 15.69
8500 83.02 17.08
9000 91.11 18.53
9500 99.58 20.01
10000 108.37 21.54

Table 21-1 Mean stopping range of alpha particle in air (1 bar, 20C) and solid gold.

C2

2
Plotting the data in QtiPlot would assist you in determining the relevant ranges. This will be especially useful
in the next section.
216 S ENIOR P HYSICS L ABORATORY

8 Spectrum of the RA226 source

8.1 Secular equilibrium of the RA226 source

Secular equilibrium is defined for a chain of decays as the situation where all the daughter nu-
clides are produced at the same rate as they decay. This is possible only if the half-live of the
first parent nuclide in the decay chain is significantly longer than the half-lives of their daugh-
ters. When the radium source was prepared it was likely to be almost pure 226 Ra. However,
since that time, some of its daughter nuclides reached secular equilibrium. If the source is in
secular equilibrium and all the daughters stay together with the parent, activities of isotopes
in the chain should be equal. The decay chain of the 226 Ra is presented in Table 21-2. Note
that the daughter gas radon 222 Rn is kept inside the source by a thin layer of gold covering the
source.

Decay process Half-life

226 Ra 222 Rn + (4784.34 keV) 1600 year
222 Rn 218 Po + (5489.48 keV) 3.8232 day
218 Po 214 Pb + (6002.35 keV) 3.071 min
214 Pb 214 Bi + e + 26.916 min
214 Bi 214 Po + e + 19.8 min
214 Po 210 Pb + (7686.82 keV) 162.3 s
210 Pb 210 Bi + e + 22.23 year
210 Bi 210 Po + e + 5.012 day
210 Po 206 Pb + (5304.33 keV) 138.3763 day

Table 21-2 Energy of principal particles emitted by 226 Ra source.

Procedure
Replace the AMR13 source with the RA226.
Evacuate the chamber and acquire the RA226 spectrum for 30 min.
Save the spectrum to a file.
Export your RA226 spectrum data to a text file using File Save... and navigate to your
folder. In the Save file selector dialogue box choose Files of Type: Tab Separated
File and type file name, for example: RA226. You do not need to include any file
extension, as the application will automatically add .tsv to the file name.
Open the QtiPlot application and import previously saved data by using File Import
Import ASCII... (or alternatively use Ctrl and K keys). Ignore first few lines (they
show some extra information about the spectrum which we are not using) until on the
preview you read Channel[X], Energy[Y], Counts[Y] as column titles and then press
the Open button.
Click right mouse button on Energy[Y] and then Set As X to define energy as an
x coordinate.
Select Energy[X2] and Counts[Y2] columns and make the scatter plot of the selected
data.
With the plot window selected go to Analysis Fit Multi-peak Gaussian... to fit
 A LPHA PARTICLES 217

Gaussian curves to your spectrum.

Analyse your result and comment on secular equilibrium of the RA226 source.

8.2 Thickness of the gold layer covering the RA226 source

The peaks in the RA226 spectrum which you observe are at lower energies than those expected
from Table 21-2. It is the result of the gold film which covers the source. Using your measure-
ment determine the thickness of the gold layer.

C3

9 High resolution spectroscopy (Optional)

AMR33 is combination of three alpha emitting isotopes: 239 Pu, 241 Am, and 244 Cm. Energy
of the alphas emitted by this source are listed in Table 21-3 and simplified decay schemes are
shown on Fig. 21-2 3 .

The detector which we are using in this experiment is of very good resolution: 9.9 keV at alphas
from 241 Am 4 . To analyse the spectrum of AMR33 more precisely we can export the data to an
external data analysis program and find the position and size of the peaks using an analytical
curve fitting procedure.

Parent Half-life/year Daughter Half-life/year Energy/keV Probability/%

5105.81 11.87
5143.82 17.14
239 Pu 24100 235 U 704000000 5156.59 70.79
5388.25 1.66
5442.86 13.23
241 Am 432.6 237 Np 2144000 5485.56 84.45
5762.65 23.30
244 Cm 18.11 240 Pu 6561 5804.77 76.70

Table 21-3 AMR33 source alpha decay data.

Procedure
Change the RA226 source to the AMR33 source.
Evacuate the system and then acquire the spectrum for at least 30 min.
Save the spectrum to the file.
Export your spectrum data to a text file.
Open the QtiPlot application and import your data.
3
The data in this table and the decay schemes comes from [2]. It is recommended reference for detailed infor-
mation on radioactive isotopes.
4
This is the detector manufacturer specification. In reality observed resolution depends also on the quality of
the pre-amplifier used, the MCA, and the alpha source.
218 S ENIOR P HYSICS L ABORATORY

1/2+ 0 keV
24100 a
239

100 % 94
Pu 145

4
04

69
01

02
5/2+ 51.7007 keV

0.

0.
191 ps 11.87 %

41
03
3/2+ 13.04 keV

0.
500 ps 17.14 %

8
10 -
1/2+ 0.0765 keV
26 min 70.79 %

7/2- 0 keV
704 Ma 0.03 %
235
U
92 143

5/2- 0 keV
432.6 a
241

100 % 95
Am146
0. 81
03
01
02

9/2- 158.497 keV

0.

1.66 %
0. 69
95
06
01

7/2- 102.959 keV

0.

80 ps 13.23 %
2
31
.9

5/2- 59.54092 keV

35
2.

67 ns 84.45 %
15
12

7/2+ 33.19629 keV

0.

54 ps 0.23 %

5/2+ 0 keV
2.144 Ma 0.38 %
237
93
Np144

0+ 0 keV
18.11 a
244

100 % 96
Cm 148
58
02

2+ 42.824 keV
0.

164 ps 23.3 %

0+ 0 keV
6561 a 76.7 %
240
94
Pu146

Fig. 21-2 236 Pu, 241 Am, and 244 Cm decays. Only energy levels with a probability greater than 1% are
presented.
A LPHA PARTICLES 219

From the imported data table delete rows at the beginning and the end which contain a
very small number of counts, not relevant to the three groups of main peaks.
Addpa column for the error of number of counts, name it as Error[yEr] and set its value
to Counts[Y ] + 1 5 .
Select Channel[X], Counts[Y], and Error[yEr] columns and make a scatter plot of
the selected data 6 .

We are expecting 8 peaks in the data. Probably only 7 of them will be visible as separated
peaks, as 239 Pu peaks of energies 5143.82 keV and 5156.59 keV are placed too close to be
separated visually, especially because of their different intensities. However, we can try our
best to resolve those peaks. By looking carefully at the shape of peaks present in this spectrum,
we can notice that Gaussian shape is not the best choice as the peaks shown are asymmetrical
- lower channels are spread significantly more than those above the mean. This asymmetry
results mainly from the energy lost by alphas when passing through the detectors electrode or
some of the sources external atom layers. There are many bell-like asymmetric functions. We
will use one which is a combination of Lorentzian (equation (1a)) and Gaussian (equation (1b))
functions. An argument of this function is x and it can signify channel number (or energy). The
width of the Gaussian function depends on the parameter (standard deviation) and the width
of the Lorenzian function depends on the parameter (half width). Parameter c is a centre of
the peak, where the shape function reaches its maximum value, a. The width of the peak is
commonly measured by parameter called F W HM (Full Width at Half Maximum), which is
given by a distance between points on the curve at which function reaches half its maximum
value. The shape of a broadened spectral line due to a mono-energetic alpha particles can be
expressed as:
a 2

x<c (1a)


S(x, {a, c, , }) = + (x c)2
2

(xc)2

ae 22 xc (1b)

Its F W HM = 2 ln 2 + 1.17741 + . Lets assume that the peaks in our spectrum
have the same shape, therefore parameters and are common to all of them. This assumption
is justified, because energies of all peaks are relatively close and the detectors response to all
alphas should be similar. The whole fitting function is given by equation (2), where index i
is numbering consecutive peaks going from 1 to 8. Function F (x) depends on 18 parameters,
whose values we will find during curve fitting procedure.
i=8
X
F (x) = S(x, {ai , ci , , }) (2)
i=1

Procedure
We have defined a function 8AsymmetricSimilarLorentzGauss to give an appropriate
fit to these asymmetric alpha particle lines. Start Fit Wizard and choose this function
5
Usually, for a larger number of counts the error is calculated as the squared root of number of counts (Poisson
distribution). We added one to the number of counts to avoid a unnatural situation when Error = 0 (for Counts =
0).
6
We are not using the data in column Energy[Y] to make a plot. However, you can find it useful to identify
approximately the position of the peaks.
 2110 S ENIOR P HYSICS L ABORATORY

as the analytical model of your data. Go to the fitting section and set starting values of
16 parameters ai and ci to approximate amplitude and position of observed peaks (guess
those values for the second hidden peak corresponding to the energy of 5143.82 keV).
Set also starting values of width of Lorentzian (g = 3) and Gaussian (s = 2).
Start fitting procedure.
Find two the best defined peaks (with the smallest error of ci , usually the main peak
from 241 Am and the main peak from 244 Cm. Use their positions ci and corresponding
accepted energy to calculate energies of the other peaks.
Find relative intensity of the peaks for every isotope in the AMR33 source.
Compare your results with accepted values and comment.

Question 2: Different energies of alphas emitted by the same isotope can be explained by
different energy levels of a daughter nuclide after the decay process. Compare differences
of alphas energies produced by 241 Am with differences of corresponding energy levels of the
daughter 237 Np. Explain the result.

C4
A LPHA PARTICLES 2111

Alpha Scattering

10 Objectives

The aim of this experiment is to investigate the angular distribution of alpha particles scattered
on gold foil. Because the count rate for alpha scattering, particularly for large angles, is very
low, it is not feasible to obtain sufficiently accurate data in a single lab session. To collect
larger number of data you will need to share your measurements with other students doing this
experiment. This is achieved by making measurements at one scattering angle, and combining
your results with data acquired by other students at different scattering angles. Collaboration
by sharing data is a feature of modern physics research.

11 Introduction

The experiments involving scattering of alpha particles when passing through thin gold foil
was originally performed by Hans Geiger 7 and Ernest Marsden 8 under direction of Ernest
Rutherford 9 . The outcome of the experiments lead Rutherford to propose a new model of the
atom, different from the currently accepted model of J.J.Thompson 10 . Rutherfords model of
atom assumed that almost all mass and positive charge of atom is located in a very small region
of atom, as opposite to Thompsons model, where electrons (discovered by J.J.Thompson) were
located in a sphere of positive charge filling the whole volume of an atom.

11.1 Scattering of charged particles in central electrostatic field

From his model of atom, Rutherford derived the formula, which was later experimentally veri-
fied for scattering angles up to 150. For more information on works of the Rutherford-Geiger-
Marsden team see their original publications, [4] and [5]. A contemporary derivation of the
formula for differential cross section on scattering is presented in reference [6]. We present
below a short derivation of a simplified formula for counts rate used in our experiment.

According to [6] the differential cross section for scattering is:

 2
d Qn Q
= csc4 (3)
d 80 mv 2 2

where:

is the cross section for scattering at angle ,

is the solid angle into which alpha particles are scattered,

7
Johannes Wilhelm Geiger, German physicist, 30.09.1882 - 24.09.1945.
8
Sir Ernest Marsden, English-New Zealand physicist, 19.02.1889 - 15.12.1970.
9
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand-born British physicist, 30.08.1871 -
19.12.1937.
10
Sir Joseph John J.J. Thomson, English physicist, 18.12.1856 - 30.08.1940.
2112 S ENIOR P HYSICS L ABORATORY

Fig. 21-3 Alpha scattering on gold nucleus. The dotted lines in this figure are asymptotes to the hyper-
bolic trajectory of the alpha particle; they give the directions of the incoming and scattered alpha particle
at a large distance from the nucleus.

Qn is the charge of the nucleus (79 e for gold),

Q is the charge of the alpha particle (2 e),

0 = 8.854187817... pF/m is permittivity of free space,

m the mass of particle,

v the velocity of particle,

the deflection angle.

Let assume area of detector A is small compared to its squared distance from gold foil r 2 , the
solid angle can be calculated as:
A
= 2 (4)
r
where:

A is the area of the detector,

r is the distance between the gold foil and the detector.

For thin gold foil, counting rate is proportional to the rate of all particles hitting the target,
number of atoms per volume unit, thickness of the foil, and cross section:

R = R0 nt (5)

where:
A LPHA PARTICLES 2113

R is the rate of scattered s,

R0 is the rate of all s reaching gold foil,

n is the number of gold atoms per volume unit,

t is the thickness of the foil.

particles from radioactive sources are relatively slow and we can use the classical equation
for energy:
mv 2
E= (6)
2
where:

E is the kinetic energy of particle.

Plugging equations: (4), (5), and (6) into (3) gives:

 2
Qn Q
R = AR0 nt csc4 (7)
16r0 E 2

12 Apparatus

In our experiment to investigate scattering on gold foil we use an apparatus described by P.J.
Ouseph [7]. Figure Fig. 21-4 shows a schematic of Ousephs apparatus.

The alpha scattering from a gold foil is observed in an evacuated chamber which, together with
a semiconductor detector mounted within it, can be rotated. An Americium-241 alpha particle
source is located in a lead container mounted inside the rotatable chamber. It is suspended from
the chambers axis and is free to rotate so that gravity preserves its vertical position when the
chamber is rotated. A small hole in the top of this container permits a collimated beam of alpha
particles to be directed radially at the centre of the gold foil. Rotating the chamber thus changes
the direction of observation of the scattered alphas. The gold foil is also rotated, but at half the
angle through which the detector is rotated. The detector is connected to the pre-amplifier and
the amplified signal is fed to the input of the computers sound card, where it can be analysed
by means of the PRA application [8].

13 Experimental Confirmation of Rutherfords Scattering For-

mula

13.1 Small Deflection Angles

Procedure

Evacuate the chamber and rotate to 0.

 2114 S ENIOR P HYSICS L ABORATORY

Fig. 21-4 Simple apparatus to investigate alpha scattering on gold foil.

Start the PRA application.

From the menu choose View Audio Input and View Pulse Height Histogram, then
Action Start Data Acquisition. Take the data for 60 s (it should stop automatically).
The pulse height histogram should produce a wide peak, which is selected. Place the
cursor inside selection of the peak and read the Gross number of counts.

Repeat the last measurement for angle ranges -10 to +10 at steps of 1.

Fit a Gaussian curve to a plot of your data.11

Question 3: Is the plot of your data similar to the expected R csc4 (/2) dependence?
Comment on your results.

Question 4: Why is Rutherfords equation wrong for small angles? Hint: What are the main
differences between Fig. 21-3 and the real situation in our experiment?

C5
11
There is not theoretical reason for using Gaussian as fitting function although our data is more or less similar to
a Gaussian. The mean of fitted Gaussian will tell us about right position of zero on the angular scale and its width
is a good measure of the beams size.
A LPHA PARTICLES 2115

13.2 Large Deflection Angles

When the gold foil is rotated by /2 angle, its effective thickness, as seen by the particle,
is increased by a factor of sec(/2). To correct for this effect we put t = t0 / cos(/2)
in equation (7). Then by multiplying both sites of the equation by cos(/2) and replacing
R cos(/2) with Rc , where Rc is corrected rate and introducing the constant 12
 2
Qn Q
C = AR0 nt0 (8)
16r0 E

our equation (7) will have a simple form (9):

Rc = C sin4 (9)
2
To verify this equation at larger angles we have to collect scattering data for a very long time.
We can achieve this by running data acquisition at chosen angle overnight and contributing the
result to the data set which combines results from observations performed by many students
doing this experiment.

Procedure

Set vacuum chamber to the angle between 10 to 100.

In the PRA application set Acquisition time to 86400 s (to do this choose menu Set-
tings Data Acquisition and Analysis and then in group Data acquisition limits change
time 60 s with 86400 s and press Apply button).

Start data acquisition.

Next day visit the lab to stop data acquisition and save your results to the file named
CumulativeData.ods located on the desktop of the computer.

13.2.1 Data Analysis

By taking the natural logarithm of both sides of equation (9) we get:

ln Rc = ln C 4 ln sin (10)
2

Procedure

Derive the formula for the error of ln Rc as a function of the number of counts.

Open a new QtiPlot project and copy and paste data from CumulativeData.ods to the
table.

Add 3 new columns and set their values to ln sin(/2) as X, ln Rc as Y, and error
of ln Rc as Y error.
12
We assume that energy of scattered particle does not depend on scattering angle, which in general is not true.
 2116 S ENIOR P HYSICS L ABORATORY

Make a scatter plot of the calculated data and fit a straight line.

Comment on the results.

C6

14 Calculation of Gold Foil Thickness (Optional)

In previous chapters we investigated how well the result of our experiment confirms Ruther-
fords equation (7). Our investigation was concentrated only on dependence of the counting
rate and csc4 (/2). We replaced the other factors in equation (7) by a constant value. We
checked that for small scattering angles equation (7) is not supported by our measurements.
However, our measurements for small angles are useful. Knowing that at 0, the counting rate
includes most of the particles hitting the gold foil 13 , the counting rate at this angle is a good
approximation of R0 . The measured average energy of the particles is E = 3818 keV 14 , the
distance between gold foil and detector is r = 76 mm, and area of the detector A = 25 mm2 .
Use above given data, known constant values and the result obtained in the previous chapter to
calculate thickness of gold foil used to scatter particles.

C7

References

[1] Glenn F. Knoll. Radiation detection and measurement. John Wiley & Sons, 1989.

[2] Bureau International Des Poids et Mesures, Pavillon de Breteuil, F-92310 Sevres. Table
of Radionuclides. http://www.nucleide.org/DDEP_WG/DDEPdata.htm

[3] I. Vasilief, QtiPlot, version 0.9.10, 2017.

http://soft.proindependent.com/qtiplot.html

[4] E. Rutherford, F.R.S. The Scattering of and Particles by Matter and the Structure of
the Atom. Philosophical Magazine Series 6, vol. 21, May 1911, p. 669-688

[5] H. Geiger, Ph.D., John Harling Fellow, and E. Marsden, Hatfield Scholar, University
of Manchester. On a Diffuse Reflection of the -Particles. (Communicated by Prof. E.
Rutherford, F.R.S. Received May 19,-Read June 17, 1909.)

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_scattering

[7] P.J. Ouseph, Alpha scattering apparatus. Am. J. Phys. 44, 1012-1013, 1976

[8] M. Dolleiser, PRA, version 16, 2017.

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/marek/pra/

13
From observation of the data points around zero degrees we can make a conclusion that the area of the detector
and the profile of the beam of alphas are well fitted.
14
The energy of particles emitted by the 241 Am is in average 5442 keV, but the source used in this experiment
is sealed by a thin metal layer which reduces their energy.