Demonstrate the Feasibility of a Detection Method to Separate Neutral Particles from Charged Particles in the MeV/Nucleon Energy Range
Abstract
A breadboard model of a spacecraft borne instrument to measure the neutral atomic fluxes with energies between 1 to 10 Mev/nucleon has been designed and constructed. Differentiation between incident charged and neutral particles will be done by measuring the production rate of convoy electrons by the particles. Calculations indicate that convoy electron production rate is much larger for neutral hydrogen than it is for protons. Incident particles strike a thin carbon foil at the entrance aperture and the resulting convoy electrons are identified using a 180 degrees magnetic spectrometer with a micro channel plate detector at the focal plane. Incident beam particles pass through the spectrometer undeflected and are detected by a solid state detector. The instrument is designed to be tested at accelerator facilities with proton and neutral hydrogen beams. Neutral beams will be generated by a proton beam through a thin carbon foil and selecting the resulting neutral beam particles using a dipole bending magnet downstream of the foil. Keywords; Convoy electrons; Charged/neutral particle differentiation; Neutral particle beams; Space instrumentation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA201114
Entities
People
- Bronislaw K. Dichter
- Frederick A. Hanser