The Photo-Ionization Proportional Scintillation Chamber

A krypton-filled gas scintillation proportional counter has been coupled, through an ultraviolet transparent LiF window, to a multi-anode proportional chamber operated in a gas mixture (argon-triethylamine-methane) having a large quantum efficiency for the emitted photons. The first experimental results suggest that, in the detection of soft X-rays, one can obtain the good energy resolution characteristics of gas scintillation counters, together with the bi-dimensional coordinate localization typical of multiwire proportional chambers (MWPCs). The name Photo-Ionization Proportional Scintillation chamber (PIPS) is proposed for the device.