The energy resolution of proportional counters with thin anode diameters down to 5 μm

Author

Tokanai, F. ; Sakurai, H. ; Noma, M. ; Gunji, S. ; Ueno, H. ; Anzai, T. ; Kato, F. ; Hoshina, T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Yamagata Univ., Japan

Volume

41

Issue

4

fYear

1994

fDate

8/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1042

Lastpage

1047

Abstract

An investigation of the energy resolution of a conventional cylindrical proportional counter with thin anode diameters from 5 μm to 20 μm has been carried out for pure argon and argon+10% methane at 1 atm. With argon+10% methane the energy resolutions for 5 μm, 10 μm, and 20 μm anode wires were 13.5%, 13.7%, and 14.1% at 5.9 keV and a gas gain ≈250, respectively. An analysis of the first Townsend ionization coefficient shows that the superior energy resolution for the thinner anode wire is due to the effect of the stronger reduced electric field at the beginning portion of the avalanche region. This has important implications for a microstrip gas counter where the (firmly supported) anodes can be made arbitrarily small, far finer than those possible in conventional wire chambers

Keywords

Townsend discharge; proportional counters; 5 to 20 mum; 5.9 keV; Ar; Ar-methane; energy resolution; first Townsend ionization coefficient; gas gain; microstrip gas counter; proportional counters; thin anode diameters; Anodes; Argon; Counting circuits; Electrodes; Energy resolution; Filling; Ionization; Microstrip; Strips; Wire;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.322855

Filename

322855