Sarah Nasser Alyemni

This study generally relates to nuclear sensors and specifically to detecting nuclear and electromagnetic radiation using an ultrasensitive quartz tuning fork (QTF) sensor. We aim to detect low doses of gamma radiation with fast response time using QTF. Three different types of QTFs (uncoated and gold coated) were used in this study in order to investigate their sensitivity to gamma radiations. Our results show that a thick gold coating on QTF can enhance the quality factor and increase the resonance frequency from 32.7 to 32.9 kHz as compared to uncoated QTF. The results also show that increasing the surface area of the gold coating on the QTF can significantly enhance the sensitivity of the QTF to radiation. We investigated the properties of gold-coated and uncoated QTFs before and after irradiation by scanning electron microscopy. We further investigated the optical properties of SiO₂ wafers (quartz) by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The SE studies revealed that even a small change in the microstructure of the material caused by gamma radiation would have an impact on mechanical properties of QTF, resulting in a shift in resonance frequency. Overall, the results of the experiments demonstrated the feasibility of using QTF sensors as an easy to use, low-cost, and sensitive radiation detector.

ZnO and MgZnO nanoparticles were prepared by the co-precipitation method utilizing zinc sulfate heptahydrate and magnesium sulfate heptahydrate; structural measurements were also carried out. An x-ray diffraction (XRD) study indicated that no peaks for other possible phases such as MgO or MgZn intermetallic compounds indicating pure wurtzite structure. All nanoparticles crystallized in a hexagonal wurtzite structure with different orientation diffraction peaks; the main peaks were (100), (002), and (101). Grain size (D) increased with increasing Mg concentrations. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that nanoparticle size increased by increasing the Mg concentration in a good qualitative with Scherrer equation and not only the size even the grain shape changed. In addition, optical measurements were taken infer that the band gap energy (Eg), extracted from Tauc’s plot, decreases with increasing of the Mg concentration doped, and found to be between 3.255 eV and 3.169 eV. The photoluminescence (PL) emission spectra show two peaks at the ultraviolet and green regions.