Chapter 4
Gaseous Detectors
H. J. Hilke and W. Riegler
4.1 Introduction
All gaseous detectors signal the passage of charged particles by gathering the
electrons from the ion pairs produced in the gas, usually after some amplification.
The history of the gas detectors starts with the counter described by Rutherford
and Geiger in 1908 [1]. It consisted of a cylindrical metallic tube filled with air
or other simple gases at some 5 Torr and with a 0.45 mm diameter wire along its
axis. The negative high voltage on the tube with respect to the wire was adjusted to
below the discharge limit. With a gas gain of a few 10 3 , only α-particles could be
detected as current pulses with an electrometer. This counter was the first electronic
counter, following the optical counting of light flashes in the study of radioactive
substances with scintillating crystals. A major step was taken when Geiger found
that by replacing the anode wire by a needle with a fme pin, electrons could also
be detected [2]. These needle counters became the main particle counter for years.
Already in 1924, Greinacher started using electronic tubes to amplify the signals
[3].
The Geiger-Mueller-counter was first described in 1928 [4]: it produced strong
signals independent of the primary ionization. Used with rare gases, these counters
required load resistances of 10 8 − 10 9 Ohm to avoid continuous discharges,
resulting in dead times of 10 −3 − 10 −4 s. Later, external circuits were introduced
to shorten the dead time. The real progress, however, brought the discovery in 1935
by Trost [5] that the addition of alcohol quenches the gas discharges internally,
The author H. J. Hilke is deceased at the time of publication.
H. J. Hilke · W. Riegler ()
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
e-mail: Werner.Riegler@cern.ch
© The Author(s) 2020
C. W. Fabjan, H. Schopper (eds.), Particle Physics Reference Library,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35318-6_4
91
Gaseous Detectors
H. J. Hilke and W. Riegler
4.1 Introduction
All gaseous detectors signal the passage of charged particles by gathering the
electrons from the ion pairs produced in the gas, usually after some amplification.
The history of the gas detectors starts with the counter described by Rutherford
and Geiger in 1908 [1]. It consisted of a cylindrical metallic tube filled with air
or other simple gases at some 5 Torr and with a 0.45 mm diameter wire along its
axis. The negative high voltage on the tube with respect to the wire was adjusted to
below the discharge limit. With a gas gain of a few 10 3 , only α-particles could be
detected as current pulses with an electrometer. This counter was the first electronic
counter, following the optical counting of light flashes in the study of radioactive
substances with scintillating crystals. A major step was taken when Geiger found
that by replacing the anode wire by a needle with a fme pin, electrons could also
be detected [2]. These needle counters became the main particle counter for years.
Already in 1924, Greinacher started using electronic tubes to amplify the signals
[3].
The Geiger-Mueller-counter was first described in 1928 [4]: it produced strong
signals independent of the primary ionization. Used with rare gases, these counters
required load resistances of 10 8 − 10 9 Ohm to avoid continuous discharges,
resulting in dead times of 10 −3 − 10 −4 s. Later, external circuits were introduced
to shorten the dead time. The real progress, however, brought the discovery in 1935
by Trost [5] that the addition of alcohol quenches the gas discharges internally,
The author H. J. Hilke is deceased at the time of publication.
H. J. Hilke · W. Riegler ()
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
e-mail: Werner.Riegler@cern.ch
© The Author(s) 2020
C. W. Fabjan, H. Schopper (eds.), Particle Physics Reference Library,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35318-6_4
91