BOAZ B GEORGE

ROLL NO:-7
AEI
WHAT IS A RADIATION DETECTOR?
 A radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, or
identify ionizing particles, such as those produced
by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation, or reactions in
a particle accelerator.
 Detectors can measure the particle energy and other
attributes such as momentum, spin, charge, particle type,
in addition to merely registering the presence of the
particle.
TYPES OF RADIATION DETECTORS
 Geiger counter
 Scintillation Detectors
 Radiation Pyrometers
Geiger counter
 A Geiger counter is an instrument used for detecting and
measuring ionizing radiation.
 Also known as a Geiger–Mueller counter (or Geiger–Müller
counter)
 It is widely used in applications such as radiation , radiological
protection, experimental physics, and the nuclear industry.
 It detects ionizing radiation such as alpha particles, beta
particles, and gamma rays using the ionization effect
produced in a Geiger–Müller tube, which gives its name to
the instrument.
 In wide and prominent use as a hand-held radiation survey
instrument, it is perhaps one of the world's best-
known radiation detection instruments.
Geiger counter
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
 A Geiger counter consists of a Geiger–Müller tube (the sensing element
which detects the radiation) and the processing electronics, which displays
the result.
 The Geiger–Müller tube is filled with an inert gas such as helium, neon,
or argon at low pressure, to which a high voltage is applied. The tube briefly
conducts electrical charge when a particle or photon of incident radiation
makes the gas conductive by ionization.
 The ionization is considerably amplified within the tube by the Townsend
discharge effect to produce an easily measured detection pulse, which is fed
to the processing and display electronics.
 This large pulse from the tube makes the Geiger counter relatively cheap to
manufacture, as the subsequent electronics are greatly simplified.
 The electronics also generate the high voltage, typically 400–900 volts, that
has to be applied to the Geiger–Müller tube to enable its operation.
 To stop the discharge in the Geiger–Müller tube a little halogen gas or
organic material (alcohol) is added to the gas mixture.
Scintillation Detectors
 A scintillation detector or scintillation counter is
obtained when a scintillator is coupled to an
electronic light sensor such as a photomultiplier tube
(PMT), photodiode, or silicon photomultiplier. PMTs
absorb the light emitted by the scintillator and re-
emit it in the form of electrons via the photoelectric
effect.
Scintillation Detectors
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
 A scintillation detector or scintillation counter is obtained when a
scintillator is coupled to an electronic light sensor such as
a photomultiplier tube (PMT), photodiode, or silicon photomultiplier.
 PMTs absorb the light emitted by the scintillator and re-emit it in the
form of electrons via the photoelectric effect.
 The subsequent multiplication of those electrons (sometimes called
photo-electrons) results in an electrical pulse which can then be
analyzed and yield meaningful information about the particle that
originally struck the scintillator.
 Vacuum photodiodes are similar but do not amplify the signal while
silicon photodiodes, on the other hand, detect incoming photons by
the excitation of charge carriers directly in the silicon.
 Silicon photomultipliers consist of an array of photodiodes which are
reverse-biased with sufficient voltage to operate in avalanche mode,
enabling each pixel of the array to be sensitive to single photons.
Radiation Pyrometers
 A radiation pyrometer is a noncontact temperature.
sensor that infers the temperature of an object by
detecting its naturally. emitted thermal radiation.
WORKING
 For measuring any temperature above 1200oC a radiation pyrometer type
thermometer is generally used.
 The main reason behind that, this type of temperature sensors or
thermometer is not required to be brought in touch with the object whose
temperature to be measured.
 For very high temperature, conventional thermometer is not at all suitable
to touch with the hot object as there may be always a chance severe damage
of the thermometer.
Not only that, some time the hot object is located in so narrow passage of
system, it is impossible to bring a thermometer near to that. In this situation
too, radiation pyrometer is successfully used for temperature measurement.
 The main working principle of this type of instruments is that, it senses the
heat radiation from a targeted hot body and reads and records its
temperature, depending upon the intensity of radiation.