Radiation Interaction and Detection

Lecture Title
Geiger-Mueller Counters

Name1: Muhammad Waqar Amin

Name2: Salman Zafar
Sr. No1 (Att. sheet) with degree code: MS-RPH-15007
Sr. No2 (Att. sheet) with degree code: MS-EL-15012

Lecture#: 37
Lecture date: 21-04-16
Due date: 28-04-16

Table of Contents
Introduction: ............................................................................................................................ 4
The Geiger discharge:.............................................................................................................. 5

List of Figures
Figure 1 The mechanism by which additional avalanches are triggered in a Geiger discharge
.................................................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 2 High voltage results increase in the height of DPHS .................................................. 7

Introduction:
The Geiger-Mueller counter (commonly referred to as the G-M counter, or simply Geiger tube)
is one of the oldest radiation detector types in existence, having been introduced by Geiger and
Mueller in 1928. However, the simplicity, low cost, and ease of operation of these detectors
have led to their continued use to the present time.
G-M counters comprise the third general category of gas-filled detectors based on
ionization. In common with proportional counters, they employ gas multiplication to greatly
increase the charge represented by the original ion pairs formed along the radiation track, but
in a fundamentally different manner.
In the proportional counter, each original electron leads to an avalanche that is basically
independent of all other avalanches formed from other electrons associated with the original
ionizing event. Because all avalanches are nearly identical, the collected charge remains
proportional to the number of original electrons. In the G-M tube, substantially higher electric
fields are created that enhance the intensity of each avalanche. Under proper conditions, a
situation is created in which one avalanche can itself trigger a second avalanche at a different
position within the tube. At a critical value of the electric field, each avalanche can create, on
the average, at least one more avalanche, and a self-propagating chain reaction results. At still
greater values of the electric field, the process becomes rapidly divergent and, in principle, an
exponentially growing number of avalanches could be created within a very short time.
Once this Geiger discharge reaches a certain size, however, collective effects of all the
individual avalanches come into play and ultimately terminate the chain reaction. Because this
limiting point is always reached after about the same number of avalanches have been created,
all pulses from a Geiger tube are of the same amplitude regardless of the number of original
ion pairs that initiated the process. A Geiger tube can therefore function only as a simple
counter of radiation-induced events and cannot be applied in direct radiation spectroscopy
because all information on the amount of energy deposited by the incident radiation is lost.
The output pulse amplitude is also large (typically of the order of volts) because Geiger
tube represents an unusually large amount of collected charge, about 109-1010 ion pairs so it
allows considerable simplification to be made in the associated electronics, often completely
eliminating the need for external amplification. Because the tubes themselves are relatively

inexpensive, a G-M counter is often the best choice when a simple and economical counting
system is needed.
Besides the lack of energy information, a major disadvantage of G-M counters is their
unusually large dead time, which greatly exceeds that of any other commonly used radiation
detector. These detectors are therefore limited to relatively low counting rates, and a dead time
correction must be applied to situations in which the counting rate would otherwise be regarded
as moderate (a few hundred pulses per second). Some types of Geiger tube also have a limited
lifetime and will begin to fail after a fixed number of total pulses have been recorded.

The Geiger discharge:

In a typical Townsend avalanche created by a single original electron, many excited gas
molecules are formed by electron collisions in addition to the secondary ions. Within usually
no more than a few nanoseconds, these excited molecules return to their ground state through
the emission of photons whose wavelength may be in the visible or ultraviolet region. These
photons are the key element in the propagation of the chain reaction that makes up the Geiger
discharge.
An energetic optical photon emitted in the filling of an inner electron shell vacancy may be
reabsorbed elsewhere in the gas by photoelectric absorption involving a less tightly bound
electron, creating a new free electron. Alternatively, the photon may reach the cathode wall
where it could release a free electron upon absorption. In either case, the newly created free
electron will migrate toward the anode and trigger another avalanche as shown in the figure
below.
If the number of excited molecules formed in a typical avalanche is n and p is the
probability of photoelectric absorption of any given photon then if the gas multiplication factor
M is relatively low (say, l02-l04) as in a proportional tube, the number of excited molecules
formed in a typical avalanche n is not very large. Also, because most gases are relatively
transparent in the visible and UV wavelength regions, the probability p of photoelectric
absorption of any given photon is also relatively low. Under these conditions, np << 1 and the
situation is "subcritical" in that relatively few avalanches are formed in addition to those created
by the original free electrons. Many proportional gases also contain an additive to absorb the
photons preferentially without creation of free electrons, further suppressing the possibility of
new avalanches.


Equation 1 Subcritical

Figure 1 The mechanism by which additional avalanches are triggered in a Geiger discharge

In a Geiger discharge, however, the multiplication represented by a single avalanche is

much higher (106-l08) and therefore n is also much larger. Now the conditions of "criticality"
can be achieved and an ever-increasing number of avalanches may potentially be created
throughout the tube.
1
Equation 2 Criticality

The time required for the spread of these avalanches is relatively short typically of the
order of micro-seconds. So the entire Geiger discharge process takes place within about a
microsecond. This time is less than that required to fully develop the output pulse from a single
avalanche, and thus the pulse amplitude simply represents the sum of all the charges created in
the Geiger discharge before its termination.
The Geiger discharge grows to envelope the entire anode wire, regardless of the position
at which the primary initiating event occurred. The process that leads to the termination of a
Geiger discharge has as its origin the positive ions that are created along with each electron in
an avalanche. The mobility of these positive ions is much less than that of the free electrons,
and they remain essentially motionless during the time necessary to collect all the free electrons
from the multiplying region. When the concentration of these positive ions is sufficiently high,

their presence begins to reduce the magnitude of the electric field in the vicinity of the anode
wire. Because the ions represent a positive space charge, the region between the ions and the
positive anode will have an effect on electric field and it would decrease the electric field.
Because further gas multiplication requires that an electric field above some minimum value
be maintained, the buildup of positive ion space charge eventually terminates the Geiger
discharge.
For a fixed applied voltage to the tube, the point at which the Geiger discharge is
terminated will always be the same, in the sense that a given density of positive ions will be
needed to reduce the electric field below the minimum value required for further multiplication, which is approximately fix for a detector. Thus, each Geiger discharge is terminated
after developing about the same total charge, regardless of the number of original ion pairs
created by the incident radiation. All output pulses are therefore about the same size, and their
amplitude can provide no information about the properties of the incident radiation. As the high
voltage is raised in a Geiger tube, the magnitude of the Geiger discharge increases and the
amplitude of the output pulse also increases in size as shown in the sketch below. A higher
voltage means a larger initial electric field before the discharge, which then requires a greater
buildup of space charge before the field is reduced below the critical value. The pulse amplitude
increases roughly in proportion to the overvoltage, defined as the difference between the
applied voltage and the minimum voltage required to initiate a Geiger discharge [1].

Figure 2 High voltage results increase in the height of DPHS

References

[1] G. F. Knoll, Radiation detection and measurement, Michigan: John Wiley & Sons, 2010.