FLEXIBLE GEIGER COUNTERS. Final Report

Technical Report · Mon Jul 31 04:00:00 EDT 1961

OSTI ID:4793167

Richter, H G; Gillespie, Jr, A S

Long flexible Geiger counters were constructed from materials such as certain vacuum cleaner hoses. The anode is maintained in an axial position during coiling of the counter by ndeans of polystyrene or polyethylene spacer disks. The cathode is a wire spiraled on the outside of the counter. Pulse heights are smaller than those from a comparable metal-wall counter but are always above 50 millivolts when flowing Q-gas is used as a counting medium. . Plateaus are exceptionally long and flat: a 2% per 100 volts slope over l000 volts was observed in a ten-foot counter. Plateau characteristics are unaffected by whether the counter is coiled or straight. Counting rates in excess of 300,000 counts per minute with little coincidence loss can be observed in these counters because of the compartmented method of construction. High counting rates for long periods of time failed to produce deterioration of pulse height, plateau, or counting rate. Efficiency of these counters for detection of gamma rays is less than that of metal-cathode counters. In use as anti-coincidence coils, the fiexible Geiger counters reduced background counting rates of a shielded counter by 2.5-fold. That an expected 10-fold reduction in background count was not observed is explained by observing that much of the shielded counter axis was exposed to cosmic rays. (auth)

• Research Organization: Research Triangle Inst., Durham, N.C. Isotope Development Lab.
• NSA Number: NSA-16-010189
• OSTI ID: 4793167
• Report Number(s): ORO-482; RTI-2513-T4-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ANODES
BACKGROUND
CATHODES
COILS
COINCIDENCE METHODS
COSMIC RADIATION
COUNTERS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ENGINEERING AND EQUIPMENT
GEIGER-MUELLER COUNTERS
PLATES
POLYETHYLENES
POLYSTYRENE
PULSES
SHIELDING
VACUUM
WIRES