Radiation Effects in Coaxial Cables

This paper describes the results of a systematic study of the interaction of cable systems with ionizing radiation fields, with a view toward achieving a fundamental understanding of the effects governing radiation induced cable signals. The study led to the construction of a physical model which was used to obtain a quantitative description of the dominant processes involved in the interaction. The model is sufficiently comprehensive to permit the calculation of the current induced in the conductors of a coaxial or triaxial cable system (or, indeed, almost any other system of conductors separated by an insulating medium) for any combination of incident photon and electron spectra. A number of experiments was performed to support the calculations. The validity of the model will be demonstrated by showing that the experimental data verify the theoretical calculations.