Radiation Detectors

Three new and important lines of development in nuclear radiation detection and measurement occupied the major part of the presentations and discussions of the first two days of the Conference. Two of these developments, spark chambers and image-intensifier/luminescent-chamber systems, enable pictures or other records of nuclear particle tracks to be obtained with a much higher degree of time resolution than is possible with existing techniques, e.g. with cloud chambers or bubble chambers. This is an important step forward in measurement techniques for the study of rare processes in nuclear reactions, in the presence of large-particle fluxes or of other interfering reactions. Image intensifiers might also be used for observation of ¿erenkov radiation and the determination of particle velocities. Measurement of the ¿erenkov angle, i.e. the angle between a particle path and the direction of emission of its associated ¿erenkov radiation, is the only method applicable for accurate measurement of velocity for particles travelling at speeds within 0.1% of the speed of light. A third topic of importance was developments in the design and use of semiconductor nuclear-particle detectors. The present report gives an outline of the main principles of these methods of measurement with a summary of device techniques and characteristics and their application to nuclear radiation measurement, as exemplified by the Conference papers. A brief survey is also given of papers dealing with other miscellaneous topics relating to scintillation and gasionization radiation detectors.