Temperature Effect on the Performance Characteristics of Alpha Particle Corona Streamer Counter

Alpha particle wire-plate corona streamer counter not only has the advantage of spark counter as simplicity of construction, low dead time, and complete absence of background counting for weakly ionizing radiation; but also it has the advantage of absence of electrode corrosion by sparking. The operation in open air is considered one of the most important attractive features of this type of counters. Since, the temperature of open air is varied from place to place, and from time to time, the performance of the counter will be affected. The effect of temperature on the alpha particle corona counter performance is studied. The alpha particle triggered corona pulse characteristics (i.e. pulse shape, amplitude, etc..) are calculated at different temperature (20-60°C). The inception voltage of corona mode regime are calculated for different wire diameters (0.05-0.1 mm) as well as different gap lengthes at different temperatures. The affect of temperature on the critical gap lengthes (i.e. transition gap lengthes between streamer and spark modes) is also determined. All the theoretical findings are confirmed by experiment.