Ionisation Chamber

An ionisation chamber is a closed vessel lled with a

suitable gas having two electrodes within it with a
potential dierence of the order of a few hundred to a
few thousand volts between them. Commonly used
ionization chambers have either parallel plate geometry
or cylindrical geometry. In the former there are two
parallel metallic plates separated by a distance. In the
cylindrical geometry, there is usually a cylindrical conducting shell with an insulated coaxial metal rod as
the two electrodes. The gas pressure is usually of the order of one atmosphere or more.
The electric eld ,within the ionization chamber being relatively low, the primary ions produced in the
chamber gas do not gain sucient energy between successive collisions with the gas molecules to produce
secondary ions. This is specially so because the mean free path between successive collisions is very small at
the relatively high gas pressure within the chamber.Thus there is no gas amplication in the ionisation
chamber.
(When an energetic heavy charged particle moves through a substance, it loses energy by repeated ionising
collisions with the atomic electrons in the substance. In each such collision , pair of positive and negative
ions is produced. The negative ions are usually electrons.
The ionization process is known as primary ionization. The positive and negative electrodes placed within a
detector attract the oppositely charged ions produced in the medium between them which gives rise to an
ionization current. While moving towards the electrodes, the ions suer repeated collisions with the atoms in
the medium, the potential dierence between the electrodes in the detector is suciently high, then the
primary ions produced in the medium may gain an amount of energy high enough to produce another ion
pair which will also move towards the opposite electrodes. These in their turn may produce further
ionization by collision. All the secondary ions thus produced add up with the primary ions and the an
amplied current is recorded by the detector. This process is known as gas-
amplication.)
The ion current at rst increases with the increase of the applied voltage and nally
reaches the saturation value when the voltage is suciently high.
The reason for the change of the ion current with the applied voltage V can be
understood in the following way.
As the p.d. between the electrodes is gradually increased, a fraction of the positive and
negative ions produced in the gas by the action of the ionizing agent is drawn towards
the opposite electrodes. At low voltage the velocity gained by the ions due to applied
electric eld x = V/d is small. Here d is the distance between the two electrodes. Thus the ions require longer
time to reach the electrodes and hence they have greater chance of recombination due to collisions between
positive and negative ions as they travel through the gas. Thus not all the ions that are produced by the
ionizing agent are able to reach the electrodes and hence the ion current is less than the maximum possible
which would be obtained if all the ions produced were able to reach the electrodes.
As V is increased, a larger fraction of the ions is able
to reach the electrodes since the chance
of recombination becomes less. Ultimately when V is
suciently high, all the ions produced in the
gas are drawn to the electrodes and I reaches the
maximum (saturation) value.

The strength of the ionization current density is ne

(vi + ve) where e is the ionic charge, vi and
ve the mean drift velocities of the two types of ions. In
the absence of the external electric eld,
the ions have random thermal velocities. When the eld
X is applied. they are accelerated towards
Opposite electrodes. The acceleration is f = Xe/m due to which the ionic velocity increases as the
Ion moves in the eld direction. However. this increase does not continue indenitely since the ion
suers collisions repeatedly, the mean time between successive collisions being =/c. where is
the mean free path and c is the mean thermal velocity which is large compared to the drift velocity
due to the eld.
Ionic mobility(k)= e/2mc
Thus the strength of the ion current is determined by the ionic mobilities of the two types of ions(+ &-).The
electrons being lighter have much greater mobilities.
Mode of Operation
An ionization chamber operates by the production of an electrical signal from the ionization Current
produced in the gas within the chamber by the ionizing agent. The positive and negative ions
separate out, being attracted by the opposite electrodes. This motion of the ions produce an induced
current which generates a voltage or a charge pulse in an external circuit which can be amplied and
recorded by suitable electronic circuits.
An ionization chamber can be operated either in the dc mode or in the pulse mode. In the rst case, we
have an integrating type of ionization chamber while in the second case we have a pulse chamber.
a) In the integrating chamber the mean current in the external circuit is measured which is a
measure of the mean intensity of the radiation producing ionization in the gas. In this case, the
individual ionizing particles constituting the radiation are not resolved. The total amount of the
radiation ionizing the gas in the sensitive volume of the chamber over a period of time is measured.
b)In the pulse chamber the individual particles are recorded and counted by recording the electrical pulses
produced in the external circuit due to the ionization produced by each of them and after proper
amplication.
Since there is no gas amplication in the ionization chamber, it can distinguish between
particles with dierent ionizing powers, e.g., , or -rays. For the detection of -particles, a thin
window must be provided for the particles to enter the gas. For -particles, the window need not
be so thin, since they are more penetrating. Since the -rays are highly penetrating, no window is
required and they can enter the chamber through the wall. To increase the ionization current, heavier
gases, e. g., argon or freon under high pressure are generally used as the chamber gas.
Proportional Counter
In a proportional counter, the electric eld between the electrodes is suciently high to cause some gas
amplication, However, the ionization is still dependent on the nature of the incoming particle and its
energy. Hence it is possible to discriminate between dierent types Of particles. Also it is possible to
measure the energy of the particle by a suitably designed Proportional counter.

Multiplication in the number of ion pairs occurs due to the production of the secondary ions by collision.
The energy gain between successive collisions is Xe, whereX is the electric eld in the tube and e is the
charge of the electron. So both X and the mean free path must be suciently high. Thus the gas pressure
in the tube must be low enough to make . suciently high.
The cumulative increase of ions due to ionisation by collision is known as Townsend or avalanche
ionization.

When the the applied voltage is low. there is no avalanche ionization, as in the regions A and B.
This is the region of operation of the ion chamber. As the voltage is increased gradually the avalanche
ionisation takes place in the region where the electric eld is very high. i.e., very near the central
wire. This is the beginning of the proportional region, marked C in the gure: where the voltage is
just sucient for the electron to produce secondary ions in the last free path before the central wire.
With further increase of voltage. the avalanche formation begins farther and farther away from the central
wire and number of secondary ions produced by each primary ion pair gradually increases. In the
proportional region, the gas amplication factor,A which is dened as a number of secondary ions resulting
from each primary ion, is about 103 and is constant for given voltage.
Next is the region of limited proportionality marked D where A is about 105 to 107 and depends somewhat
on the pulse size. Further increase of voltage results in still larger value of A which is around 108 in the
Geiger region marked E. The size of the pulse is independent of the number of primary ions formed in the
initial ionising event. If the voltage is still higher,A becomes so high that a continuous discharge takes place.
This is the region F in the gure.
In the proportional region, A is a constant at a given voltage and rises with
increasing voltage. Assuming A = 103 an -particle producing 105 primary ions in the gas Of the
proportional counter produces a pulse with an amplitude corresponding to the collection of 108 electrons at
the anode. On the other hand. a -partiele producing 102 primary ions in the Counter gas gives rise to a
pulse resulting from the collection of 105 ions at the anode. For -rays, the electrons ejected from the
materials within the chamber which produce ionization in the gas, the pulse size is about the same as that
produced by the -particles.
With suitable electronic discriminator. it is then possible to record the pulses due to the
-particles selectively against a background of and -rays. Proportional counters in common
use have cylindrical geometry with a cathode cylinder along the axis of which is stretched a thin
anode wire enclosed in a sealed glass tube tted with some suitable inert gas(e.g.. Ar or He) mixed with an
organic vapour. Mixtures e.g.. 90% Ar + 10% methane or 96 %He +4% isobutane are commonly used at a
total pressure ranging from below one atmosphere to a little above. Voltages from 1500 to 5000 volts are
required to get the proper gas amplication at atmospheric pressure.
In the counter tube with the cylindrical geometry , the electric eld at a distance r from the axis is
r = V/r{ln (rc / ra)}
where V is potential dierence,
ra and rc are radii of anode and cathode respectively .
Thus, the eld is strong near the anode wire.For this reason the avalanche production takes place near the
anode.
/p = C/2 (X/p)1/2
where, = Number of secondary ion pairs formed by an electron per unit path length in the
gas(Townsend coecient)
p=pressure of the gas
C=constant
X=Electric eld

Methods based on Light Sensing

In this method , charged particle passing through a detector produces a momentary ash of light(visible or
ultraviolet) which can be detected by special light sensitivee phototubes which converts the light signal into
electrical signal that can be amplied and detected by electronic circuits.These methods can also detect
neutral radiations like gamma or neutrons .
Scintillation detectors uses this method.

Scintillation Detector
It is one of the earliest forms of radiation detectors. In earlier days, visible scintillations produced by
incidentt radiations were observed through a microscope tted with a screen os some scintillating material
knowns as the phosphor.
Nowadays , very high speed electronic detectors are used(scintillation taking place in times of the order of
10-9 s).
The intrinsic eciency of GM counter is only 0.1 % while scintillation detector has an eciency of 20 %.

Various Phosphor used for detection of dierent particles given in the table below

1 ZnS(Ag) (meaning ZnS activated with traces of Ag) alpha particle

2 Anthracene or stilbene Beta particle

3 NaI(Tl) or CsI(Tl) gamma particle

Modes of energy transfer: In a crystal, the atoms are arranged in a regular

array in the form of a lattice. In the ionic crystal. alternate lattice sites are occupied by the positive
and negative ions (e. g., Na+ and I- ). There is strong electrostatic interaction between the adjacent
ions. As a result, the energy levels of the individual valence electrons coalesce to produce a broad
energy band. These are known as the valence bands(VB) which are characteristic of the whole crystal.There
is another band above the valence band known as the conduction band which is separated

from the VB by an energy gap, called the forbidden zone in which no electron can exist.In a halogen halide
crystal, this gap may be 6 to 8 eV.
When a high speed charged particle passes through the crystal lattice, it may transfer a small
fraction of its energy to an electron in the valence band as a result of which the electron will be raised to
conduction band which is normally empty in an insulator. The electron now moves through the
crystal till it comes across an electron trap or a crystal imperfection due either to a structural defect
in the crystal or due to an added impurity. The hole left in the valence band (which behaves like a
positively charged particle) also moves through the lattice.
The electron trapped in the conduction band may subsequently return to the lower valence band. In the
process. light is emitted in the form of uorescence radiation. The whole process occurs in times of the order
of 10-8 s or less. The light so emitted however, has too high an energy (6 to8eV) to lie in the visible region.
However, the presence of an activator (like thallium in Nal) shifts the emission Spectrum to the visible
region in the de-excitation process. Some impurity levels now appear in the forbidden zone
mug!) which the electron can de-excite to the valence band as a result the photon has much lower energy
and lies in the visible region.

Photomultiplier Tube:

Modem method of scintillation counting was greatly facilitated due to the development of photomultiplier
tubes . Photomultiplier tube.,T is a sealed tube made of glass or quartz at one end of which is coated a
semitransparent layer of some Photosensitive material e.g., Cs3Sb which is an inter-metallic compound of
caesium and antimony. This is known as the Photocathode designated by C in the gure.
When the scintillation photons fall on the photocathode, photoelectrons are emitted with a quantum
eciency of 20 to 30 percent. Quantum eciency is dened as the ratio of the number of electrons emitted
to the number of incident photons.
Facing the photocathode C. there is a series of secondary electron emitting surfaces D1 D2,,D3 etc known as
the dynodes. The presence of the dynodes gives rise to the multiplication in the number of electrons nally
collected at the anode A for each electron emitted from the photocathode due t0 the incidence of a
scintillation photon on the latter. The rst dynode D1 is kept at a positive potential Of about 80 to lOO
volts with respect to the photocathode C. The successive dynodes are kept at similar positive potentials with
respect to the dynodes immediately preceding them. The Anode A is at the same potential as the last
dynode.
When an energetic electron falls on the sensitive surface of a dynode, secondary electrons are
emitted from the latter by a process similar to the process of photoelectron emission. The ratio of the number
of electrons emitted from the sensitive surface of a dynode for each electron striking it, is known as
secondary electron emission coecient .
If the secondary electron emission coecient is N and the number of stages of multiplication i.e. number of
dynodes is n, the multiplication factor will be Nn.
Suppose N=5 and n=10 , then Nn=107,So Number of electrons collected at anode is 107