Talk:Proportional counter
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I have rewritten quite a bit of this page. The article implied that G-M tubes make use of the avalanche effect but proportional counters do not. In fact, both make use of the Townsend avalanche. The difference is that in a proportional counter, the proportionality between the energy deposited by the original event and the energy detected is preserved. In a G-M tube this proportionality is not preserved. I thought that this was an important point to make.
I also removed
"(a metal wire in the middle of a metal can is positive electrode and the metal can itself is grounded, i.e. it is the zero-voltage electrode)"
since I don't think it really made things any clearer.
Perhaps in the future it would be good to have a chart of pulse amplitude against applied voltage, showing the region of proportionality etc Mumby 23:33, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
- Much better now.
- I also think if you mention the gain/voltage relation, the article might then also benefit from a mention of some important variants of the Prop counters: position-sensitive and multiwire devices, and also alternate methods of generating high field gradients, such as microdots and microstrips. The article has the potential of getting specialised at that point, but I feel it's important to hint at the variety. Matt Whyndham 16:02, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Particles, charged particles, and elementary particles
I changed the 'particles' link from elementary particles to the charged particles stub. This is not an ideal solution, but I thought it was important not to imply that elementary particles are the only kind of ionising radiation that a proportional counter might be designed to measure. Mumby 12:23, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
