ABSTRACT
Gas-filled detectors operate by utilizing the ionization produced by radiation as it passes through a gas. There are types of gas-filled detectors in which the electric field is so strong that the electrons of the primary ionization acquire enough kinetic energy between collisions to produce new electron-ion pairs. While there has been an emphasis in the chapter on the fundamentals of gas-filled detectors, a wide variety of applications of such systems has been developed in nuclear instrumentation. It discusses the special characteristics of the three types of gas-filled detectors. An ionization chamber of the current type measures the average ionization produced by many incoming particles. The photoelectric interactions are caused by photons that are produced in the detector as a result of the ionization and excitation of the atoms and molecules of the gas. Gas-flow detectors may operate as proportional or GM detectors (counters).
