Studies on Noble Gas Scintillators

The results from a study of the use of noble gases without wavelength shifters as scintillation detectors for nuclear particles are presented. The spectra and the time dependence of the fluorescence induced by ¿-particles in helium, neon, argon, krypton and xenon, have been investigated by single photoelectron techniques and are reported. A study of the scintillation efficiency as a function of gas pressure and of dimensions of the scintillation chamber, shows the great importance of geometrical factors in light collection. In all cases, experimental results on pulse heights and decay times would be reproduced within ± 5 % and the operation of these gas scin tillators as particle detectors was found to be satisfactory.