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Emission and absorption of photons in gaseous detectors

  • Session I. Gas Detectors
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Detectors in Heavy-Ion Reactions

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 178))

Abstract

In this paper some of the progresses due to a better understanding of the emission and absorption of photons in gaseous detectors are discussed. The possibility of imaging photons from 4 to 10 eV offers many possible applications, discussed in this paper, for X-ray imaging, high-energy calorimetry, particle identification, etc.

While ultraviolet photons have been known for a long time to play a major role in the mechanism of the Geiger counter, more recent developments are due to a deeper understanding and control of emission and absorption of photons in gaseous detectors.

This is illustrated by the operation of wire chambers in the limited Geiger or streamer mode, gas scintillation proportional counters, proportional photo-ionization scintillation counters, multistep avalanche chambers, and various types of detectors for photon imaging.

At a symposium held in conjunction with the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of H. Geiger, I thought it appropriate to discuss the photon emission or absorption in gaseous detectors, and this for several reasons. It so happens that my group has been actively engaged, at CERN, in some developments based on the exploitation of these phenomenal1–3). Also my personal interest in particle detectors grew from the construction of Geiger counters in my first steps as an experimentalist: looking in the dark at the wires illuminated by the excited ion sheath in Geiger counters, I started the study of light pulses in proportional counters4).

At the present time many groups have invented new devices based on the understanding or control of the various electromagnetic radiation phenomena connected with the collisions of electrons in gases and I would like, in this contribution, to review briefly some of these advances in detector techniques.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

    G. Charpak

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  1. G. Charpak
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Editor information

W. von Oertzen

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© 1983 Springer-Verlag

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Charpak, G. (1983). Emission and absorption of photons in gaseous detectors. In: von Oertzen, W. (eds) Detectors in Heavy-Ion Reactions. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 178. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-12001-7_242

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-12001-7_242

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-12001-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39475-4

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