Parallel-plate avalanche detectors with anode wire grids

Abstract

A fission-fragment detection system was designed and built at The George Washington University, to be used in photofission experiments at the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory and the Jefferson Laboratory. The fission fragments were detected using parallel-plate avalanche detectors with anode wire grids. An array of several target–detector pairs was mounted inside a low-pressure reaction chamber. The results of calibrations of the detectors using a 252Cf source and their performance with a bremsstrahlung photon beam during the experiments are presented.