Response of air-filled ion chambers to high-intensity radiation pulses

Ion chambers are one of the most popular types of detectors used for beam loss-monitor systems. To provide a foundation for the development of future loss-monitor systems, and to fully characterize the ion chambers in use at LAMPF, we have studied the response of air-filled cylindrical ion chambers to high-intensity, short-duration radiation pulses. The most intense pulses were about 180 rad in 250 ns (the equivalent steady-state dose rate was about 700 Mrad/h). We filled our chambers with nitrogen gas at 760 Torr and air at 600 Torr. The ion chambers were driven into extreme nonlinear response. We hope these data will be used to design loss-monitor systems based on air-filled ion chambers, thus eliminating the need for gas-flow systems and/or airtight ion chambers