Nuclear resonance fluorescence using different photon sources

Nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) is a photon-based active interrogation approach that provides isotope-specific signatures that can be used to detect and characterize samples. As NRF systems are designed to address specific applications, an obvious first question to address is the type of photon source to be employed for the application. Our collaboration has conducted a series of NRF measurements using different photon sources to begin to examine this issue. The measurements were designed to be as similar as possible to facilitate a straightforward comparison of the different sources. Measurements were conducted with a high-duty factor electron accelerator using bremsstrahlung photons, with a pulsed linear accelerator using bremsstrahlung photons, and with a narrow bandwidth photon source using Compton backscattered photons. We present our observations on the advantages and disadvantages of each photon source type. Issues such as signal rate, the signal-to-noise ratio, and absorbed dose are discussed.