A microstrip gas chamber based gas proportional scintillation counter

In this work we present the concept of a xenon gas proportional scintillation counter (GPSC) based on a microstrip gas chamber (MSGC) working at atmospheric pressure. For this purpose we use a MSGC having a CsI photocathode directly deposited onto it as the photosensor to detect the VUV scintillation light produced in a GPSC, instead of the usual photomultiplier. The MSGC electrodes also act as the GPSC 2nd scintillation grid. Using this approach a greater simplicity and compactness can be achieved. The performance of a GPSC based on this concept is presented and discussed. The energy resolution obtained is about 17% for 5.9 keV X-rays. The variation of the pulse amplitude with the reduced electric field intensity shows the expected linear behaviour characteristic of the xenon secondary scintillation intensity.