F-16 Performance of a Room Temperature Gas Proportional Scintillation Counter in X-ray Analysis of Metallic Alloys Excited with Alpha Particles

Abstract

A gas proportional scintillation counter with a large detection area (≈ 1000 mm 2) is described. The curved grid technique was used for solid angle compensation and the photosensor is a photomultiplier tube with a 50 mm diameter quartz window. For an energy range between 2.5 and 25 keV it can work at counting rates up to 20,000 events/s, presenting for 5.9 keV X-rays an energy resolution of 7.8% for a 1 mm collimated beam that degrades to 9% when the full detector window is used. Results for its performance in the analysis of some common metallic alloys excited with alpha particles are presented.