ISSN:
1089-7550
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
When gas proportional scintillation counters (GPSC) are used to detect very low energy x rays, the addition of the light noble gas neon to the usual xenon filling improves the collection of primary electrons that originate near the detector window. However, xenon–neon mixtures have lower electroluminescence yields than pure xenon. Increasing the scintillation electric field jeopardizes the energy resolution because of the additional fluctuations introduced by electron multiplication. In this work we investigate the effect of a limited amount of charge multiplication on the electroluminescence yield and the energy resolution R of a xenon–neon GPSC using both Monte Carlo simulation and experimental measurements. We consider xenon–neon mixtures with 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 70%, 90%, and 100% Xe at a total pressure of 800 Torr. Comparing the experimental and Monte Carlo data for 5.9 keV x rays, we conclude that optimum value of R is reached in a region of weak ionization with a charge gain of less than 2. By extrapolating the experimental results for R to infinite light yield we obtain the intrinsic energy resolution Rint for 5.9 keV x rays in all mixtures. From these results we can predict Fw values, where F is the relative variance in the number of primary electrons (the Fano factor) and w is the mean energy required to produce a primary electron. From a comparison between Monte Carlo and experimental electroluminescence yields, F and w values are estimated for 5.9 keV x rays in the various mixtures. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.370131
