Title :
An argon gas proportional scintillation counter with UV avalanche photodiode scintillation readout
Author :
Monteiro, C.M.B. ; Lopes, J.A.M. ; Simões, P. C P S ; Dos Santos, J.M.F. ; Conde, C.A.N.
Author_Institution :
Dept. de Fisica, Coimbra Univ., Portugal
Abstract :
An uniform-field, argon-filled gas proportional scintillation counter, using a large area avalanche photodiode is presented. The argon excitation and ionization thresholds were found to be about 0.7 and 3.7 V cm-1 Torr-1, respectively. An upper limit of 0.30±0.04 was measured for the argon Fano factor for 5.9-keV X-rays. An energy resolution of 12.5% was achieved for 5.9-keV X-rays. The UV LAAPD proved to be suitable for reading the scintillation light of an argon-filled GPSC, providing a quantum efficiency of about 50% at 128 nm. Good LAAPD performance is already achieved for gains about 100
Keywords :
X-ray detection; argon; avalanche photodiodes; gas scintillation detectors; proportional counters; Ar; Ar gas proportional scintillation counter; Fano factor; UV avalanche photodiode scintillation readout; energy resolution; excitation threshold; ionization threshold; quantum efficiency; Argon; Avalanche photodiodes; Electrons; Energy resolution; Ionization; Physics; Scintillation counters; Solid scintillation detectors; X-ray detection; X-ray detectors;
Conference_Titel :
Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2000 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Lyon
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6503-8
DOI :
10.1109/NSSMIC.2000.949084
