Preliminary Studies CF Gas Fillings in Gas Scintillation Proportional Counters

Results are presented on improvements in the performance of medium energy large area gas scintillation proportional counters for use in X-ray astronomy. By a suitable choice of gas mixture the electron transit time through the drift region can be significantly lowered with a consequent reduction in the detector dead time. In addition the electron diffusion is also reduced and this should result in an increase in the background rejection efficiency.