Analyses of Data Acquired From High-Pressure Gas Ionization Chamber

It is shown that pulse-height spectra acquired from a high-pressure$hbox Xe+ ^3!hbox He$gas ionization chamber exposed to mixed gamma-neutron radiation fields can be unfolded into separate gamma ray and thermal neutron spectra. The procedure takes advantage of the unique shape of the recently discovered spectral response of thermal neutrons in this high pressure$hbox Xe+ ^3!hbox He$mixture. A template spectrum formed from only the pulse-height distribution of neutron signals is subtracted from the combined gamma and neutron spectrum to provide an estimate for the count of thermal neutrons. This procedure leaves a pure gamma spectrum for standard gamma ray spectrum analyses and isotope identification.