Radon measurement via secondary particles spectroscopy: A Geant4 simulation study with experimental validation

This study introduces an innovative method for radon measurement based on the energy spectra of secondary particles (protons and gammas) generated from alpha particle interactions. The Geant4 toolkit was used to simulate these interactions in various materials to identify optimal signal converters. Among the materials studied, Mylar and Plexiglas were identified as the most effective, with Mylar producing a distinct gamma-ray peak at 6.1 MeV with a yield of 1.8 × 10 −5 per initial Radon decay, and Plexiglas showing the highest proton yield. To validate the simulation framework, an experiment was conducted to measure the gamma-ray spectrum from a known radon source (50 Bq/m 3 ) in air using a CsI(Tl) detector. The experimental results showed good qualitative agreement with the simulated spectrum for air, providing strong confidence in the simulation's predictions. The findings demonstrate that secondary particle spectroscopy, particularly using high-efficiency converter materials, is a promising and now experimentally supported method for radon detection.