Professional Documents
Culture Documents
GM Counter
GM Counter
GM Counter
THEORY:
detail.
Instrument:
It consists of a glass cylinder with metallic coating (M) with a thin wire
(mostly tungsten) mounted along its axis. The wire is insulated from the
tube using a ceramic feed-through .The central wire (anode) A is kept at
a positive potential of a few hundreds of volt or more with respect to
metallic tube which is grounded. The tube is flled with argon gas mixed
with halogens at reduced pressure of about 10 cm of mercury. The tube
may have a very thin mica window shielded by some protective gauze.
Potential diference between A and M should be greater than certain
threshold value but not very large to create a continuous discharge of
current through the gas. A RC circuit is connected in parllel to the anode
which is further connected to a scalar whichis used in counting the
pulses.
Working:
When an ionizing radiation or particle enters the Geiger tube some of
the energy of the radiation or particle may get transferred to a gas
molecule within the tube. This absorption of this energy results in
ionization, producing an electron-ion pair (primary ions). The liberated
electrons move towards the central wire and positive ions towards the
negatively charged cylinder. The electrons now cause further ionization
by virtue of the acceleration due to the intense electric feld. These
secondary ions may produce other ions and these in turn still other ions
before reaching the electrodes. This cascading efect produces an
avalanche of ions and is known as townsend discharge. In an avalanche
created by a single original electron many excited gas molecules are
formed by electron collisions in addition to secondary ions. In a very
short time of few nanoseconds these excited molecules return to
ground state through emission of photons in the visible or ultraviolet
region. These photons are the key element in the propagation of the
chain reaction that makes up the Geiger discharge. If one of these
photons interacts by photoelectric absorption in some other region of
the tube a new electron is liberated creating an avalanche at a diferent
location in the tube. The arrival of these avalanches at the anode
causes a drop in the potential between the central wire and the
cylinder. This process gives rise to a very large pulse with an amplitude
independent of the type and energy of the incident radiation. The pulse
Operating Voltage :
When we starting measuring counts using G.M counter we observe that.
For low voltages, no counts are recorded. This is because the electric
feld is too weak for even one pulse to be recorded. As the voltage is
increased, eventually one obtains a counting rate. The voltage at which
the G-M tube just begins to count is called the starting potential. The
counting rate quickly rises as the voltage is increased. After the quick
rise, the counting rate levels of. This range of voltages is termed the
plateau region. Eventually, the voltage becomes too high and we
have continuous discharge. The threshold voltage (V 1) is the voltage
where the plateau region begins. Proper operation is when the voltage
is in the plateau region of the curve . Let the voltage at which the
continous dischage occur be V2 then the proper voltage or operating
voltage is given by:
= V1 + (1/3)(V2-V1)
Quenching:
When the positive charge layer (formed after ionization of gas)
reaches may eject some electrons which can produce another
avalanche( as the feld has againn reached its full value). So, we need
some mechanism to stop Clearly some means are needed by which