ABSTRACT
The previous chapter was concerned with techniques of producing particle beams of various species. The beams are then put to use for scientific, medical or industrial uses. Understandably, interactions of radiations with material media as described in the first sections influence the outcomes of applications. Not surprisingly, the same physics of interaction of radiations and material properties which governs the radiation phenomena is applicable for the development of radiation detectors. The detectors are transducers, converting ionizations or energy deposits of radiations to electrical or optical signals. The signals are processed to obtain the information we seek, which may be
(i) radiation levels in a nuclear facility such as a particle accelerator or a nuclear reactor or for environmental monitoring
(ii) energies and intensities of various species of radiations for measurements in research, teaching, medical or other applications
(iii) identification and quantification of various species of radiations in a complex radiation environment for nuclear or particle science purposes
(iv) energy and time correlations of radiation species for research and applications
The detector systems evolved from visual systems (counting fluorescence signals with the naked eye) and slow photographic systems to high speed electronic arrangements with associated digitization and
graphic representations. As technologies change rapidly, detector instrumentation is also advancing in leaps and bounds. Thus the discussion below is not exhaustive but it is intended to provide a flavor of various techniques and the physics behind them. A good resource to keep up to date with on-going developments of particle detectors is the review of particle physics1 published biennially.
