A scintillation counter is an instrument that detects and measures ionizing radiation using a scintillator material, a substance that emits a brief flash of light when struck by a charged particle or photon, coupled to a photomultiplier tube that converts each flash into an electrical pulse that can be counted and measured. Developed from earlier scintillation-based detection methods in the early twentieth century and refined into its modern electronic form following the invention of the photomultiplier tube in the 1930s and 1940s, the scintillation counter offered far greater sensitivity and counting speed than the manual visual scintillation methods, such as spinthariscopes, that preceded it. Scintillation counters remain widely used in nuclear physics research, radiation safety monitoring, medical imaging techniques such as gamma cameras and positron emission tomography, and geological applications including well logging and mineral exploration.
Facts
Invented Year Measuresthe intensity and energy of incident ionizing radiation 1 Operating PrincipleIncident ionizing radiation excites a scintillating material, which emits light pulses; a photomultiplier tube converts the light to an electrical signal whose pulse height is proportional to the energy deposited by the original radiation. 1 Classification
Instrument Class Connections
Used In
The scintillation counter detects ionizing radiation by the flashes of light it produces in a scintillator material, developed by Samuel Curran in 1944 for nuclear-physics detection work.
Sources
1. Scintillation Counter (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWikipedia, Scintillation counter article, History section, first sentence
The first electronic scintillation counter was invented in 1944 by Sir Samuel Curran whilst he was working on the Manhattan Project at the University of California at Berkeley.
Wikipedia, Scintillation counter article, lead section, third sentence
Scintillation counters are widely used in radiation protection, assay of radioactive materials and physics research because they can be made inexpensively yet with good quantum efficiency, and can measure both the intensity and the energy of incident radiation.
Wikipedia, Scintillation counter article, lead section, first sentence
A scintillation counter is an instrument for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation by using the excitation effect of incident radiation on a scintillating material, and detecting the resultant light pulses.
Lede, instrument class
A scintillation counter is an instrument that detects and measures ionizing radiation using a scintillator material, a substance that emits a brief flash of light when struck by a charged particle or photon, coupled to a photomultiplier tube that converts each flash into an electrical pulse that can be counted and measured.
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