The article presents the results of experiments on a detection system used for detecting signals from a miniature, low-energy micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) X-ray source. The authors propose to use a detection based on luminescence phenomena occurring in luminophore and scintillators to record the visual signal on a CMOS/CCD detector. The main part of the article is a review of various materials of scintillators and luminophores which would be adequate to convert low-energy X-ray radiation (E < 25 keV – it is a range not typical for conventional X-ray systems) to visible light. Measurements obtained for different energies, exposure times, and different targets have been presented and analysed.

Modern scintillator detectors act as an efficient tool for detection and measurement of ionizing radiations. ZnSe based materials have been found to be a promising candidate for scintillation applications. These scintillators show much-needed scintillation efficiency along with advantages such as high thermal and radiation stability, less-toxicity, non-hygroscopicity, emissions in the visible range and small decay time etc. Further, in quantum confinement regime, they show improvement in luminescent properties and size dependent emissions. In this review article, the attempt has been made to trace the progress of ZnSe based materials towards highly efficient quantum dot scintillators. Here, the fundamental process of scintillation has been explained. Factors such as doping, annealing, heavy ion irradiation which affects the scintillation response of ZnSe based scintillators have also been discussed. Method of synthesis plays a key role in optimization of quantum dot properties. Hence, it has been tried to trace the development in methods of synthesis of quantum dots. With optimized synthesis, we can extend applications of these highly efficient quantum dot scintillators for various scientific and industrial applications.

The void fraction is one of the most important parameters characterizing a multiphase flow. The prediction of the performance of any system operating with more than single phase relies on our knowledge and ability to measure the void fraction. In this work, a validated simulation study was performed in order to predict the void fraction independent of the flow pattern in gas-liquid two-phase flows using a gamma ray 60Co source and just one scintillation detector with the help of an artificial neural network (ANN) model of radial basis function (RBF). Three used inputs of ANN include a registered count under Compton continuum and counts under full energy peaks of 1173 and 1333 keV. The output is a void fraction percentage. Applying this methodology, the percentage of void fraction independent of the flow pattern of a gas-liquid two-phase flow was estimated with a mean relative error less than 1.17%. Although the error obtained in this study is almost close to those obtained in other similar works, only one detector was used, while in the previous studies at least two detectors were employed. Advantages of using fewer detectors are: cost reduction and system simplification.

The performance of free-space optical (FSO) communications that using an optical amplifier (OA) in the scheme of an amplify-received (AR)-relaying has a major drawback in the detection of input signal quality under the effects of turbulence. As an OA is based on a fiber-detection (FD) method to receive and delivers a signal at the amplification process stage, there is an opportunity to implement an optical spatial filter (OSF) to improve the quality of an input signal. In this paper, as the continuation of previous work on the direct-detection, the OSF is applied on the AR-relaying. The novelty proposed in this work is the improvement of FD method where the OSF is designed as the integration of cone reflector, pinhole and multi-mode fiber with an OA. The OSF produces an optical signal, the input of the OA, which minimizes the effects of turbulence, background noise and signal fluctuation. Thus, OA in AR-relaying produces signal output with high power and rise up below threshold level. Additionally, an OSF with a lower pinhole diameter produces the best quality of the signal spectral to be delivered into an EDFA. Through this implementation, the performance of optical relaying on FSO can be significantly improved.

Local weather conditions have an impact on the availability of free-space optical (FSO) communication. The variation in meteorological parameters, such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed, leads to variations of the refractive index along the transmission path. These refractive index inhomogeneities produced by atmospheric turbulence induce optical turbulence which is responsible for random fluctuations in the intensity of the laser beam that carries the signal (irradiance) called scintillations that can significantly degrade the performance of FSO systems. This paper aims to investigate the feasibility of deploying FSO communication technology under scintillation effects in any urban region and atmospheric environment. To achieve that, firstly by utilizing the Hufnagel-Vally day with the Sadot and Kopeika models together, the scintillation strength for a specified region, Sulaimani City in north-eastern Iraq as an example, has been estimated through the calculation of the refractive index structure parameter (Cn2) over a period of 10 years and it was found to be at the strong turbulence level. Secondly, from the same estimated parameter, the scintillation attenuation of the signal carrying the laser beam intensity can be calculated to investigate the feasibility of FSO communication using Optysistem-7 software. The optimal link distance for north-eastern Iraq (Sulaimani City) has been found to be within the limit of about 5.5 km. Analysing the max. Q-factor, bit-error rate and signal to noise ratio for an average of 120 months between 2013–2022 assessed the best and worst seasons for FSO.