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ACOUSTIC SPARK CHAMBER

Journal Article · · Nucl. Instr. Methods

Positions of the tracks produced by cosmic rays in a 15-kv four-gap spark chamber were determined by measuring the time of flight T of the shock waves produced by sparks in argon. A pair of acoustic probes, using bariumtitanate piezoelectric transducers, is placed in each gap of the spark chamber. Times in mu sec for each probe are measured by a time-sorter and printed 2 sec after the passage of the particle through the chamber; from these, the position and the angle of the track was reconstructed by a program. With the spark energy of 2 joules, signals of the order ot 1 v are obtained from the transducer. These signals are of N-wave form, with the rise-time of 1 mu sec or less. the full-width one-dimensional resolution in the spark position is 0.33 mm up to a distance of 52 cm; and 0.41 mm at 1 meter (giving an accuracy to 1: 2500). The full-width spatial resolution, measured with three probes per gap is 0.8 plus or minus 0.4 mm. The time-of-flight vs distance dependence is linear up to 3 meters. The recovery time of the probes is 10 mu sec, suggesting the possibility of handling up to ten tracks during a long-spill accelerator pulse, with two probes per gap, and up to 20 with six probes per gap. (auth)

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Berkeley
NSA Number:
NSA-17-004829
OSTI ID:
4740775
Report Number(s):
UCRL-10057
Journal Information:
Nucl. Instr. Methods, Journal Name: Nucl. Instr. Methods Vol. Vol: 17
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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