Geiger-Muller Counter

Const:
Consists of a metal cylinder which acts as a cathode and is

about 1-2cm in dia.

It has an axial insulated wire (anode) and is capable of being

maintained at a high positive potential of the order of 8002500V.

this

assembly is placed in a tubular glass envelope containing a gas or mixture of gases which is easily ionisable.

The envelope is gas tight and is typically filled to a pressure

of 80mm of argon gas and 20mm of alcohol. Alcohol quenching gas, Argon-ionising gas
Tube contains a thin mica window which permits effective

passage of beta and gamma rad, but not of alpha rad.

Principle:
Gas is ionised in the counting tube. Migration

of ions takes place towards the app. Electrodes under the voltage gradient.

They acquire sufficient velocity, causing further ionisation

and give rise to an avalanche of electrons travelling towards the central anode.
As a result, ion multiplication spreads to a complete

sheath around the anode and the same pulse size is observed for each primary ionising event.

 The process in fact produces a continuous discharge

which fills the whole vol. of the counter in less than a microsec.
Each discharge builds up to a constant pulse of 1-10V. This pulse amp.

Is sufficient to operate a ratemeter w/o using any amplifier.

Operation
Below the starting voltage , no counts are recorded. b/w the starting voltage and beginning of plateau the voltage

is too low to produce constant pulse size.

Beyond the plateau, the count rate inc. becoz of breakdown

and spurious discharges thr the tube.

Plateau is observed b/w 800-1400V. slope of the plateau-percentage of the count rate/volt. should not be more than 0.1% for a counter in satisfactory

cond.
The counter is placed inside a lead shield in order to minimise

the counts due to background.

Dead time
Positive ions are heavier and lower mobilities. Positive ions form a sheath around the anode causing the

counter to become insensitive to the entry of fresh ionising particles.(dead time).

External quenching circuit Reduces the dead time and increases the lifetime of the

counter.

Quenching
When a GEIGER-MULLER tube operates in Geiger region, the

secondary electrons increase the current pulse by further ionization of gas molecules.
The object of counter is to produce a single pulse due to entry of a

particle.
The tube should not then give any succeeding spurious pulses but

should recover as quickly as possible to be in the state to record the next entering particle.
Therefore, it is desirable to prohibit the production of spurious pulse

following the main required plus due to a single particle entry.

The process of prohibiting the undesirable secondary pulse is called

quenching. There are two method of quenching known as internal and external quenching.