SUPERCONDUCTING NUCLEAR PARTICLE DETECTOR.
Abstract
The mechanisms involved in the detection of alpha particles by thin superconducting films have been further examined. In particular, the alpha-particle induced, self-recovering, voltage pulses were studied in some detail. Experimentally, the problem of obtaining useful information from these pulses is difficult because the signal-to-noise ratio is poor and the pulses are very fast. Attempts were made to increase pulse amplitudes by increasing film resistivity, but although some success was achieved, the increases were not adequate to significantly relieve the problem. Critical currents were increased in several films by placing ground planes over the detectors, but this increase did not result in enhanced pulses. The ground plane experiments did show, however, that thermal spike radii measurements are insensitive to the inhomogeneous current distributions which exist in films without ground planes. The distribution of pulse amplitudes with and without ground planes was measured and found to be very broad in both cases. The problem of theoretically describing the pulses is complex, since a multitude of dynamic features must be considered. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 31, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0629059
Entities
People
- D. E. Spiel