Performance characteristics of a fluorescent gated gas scintillation proportional counter

Abstract

Experimental results are presented on the background rejection capabilities of a K gated xenon gas scintillation proportional counter (GSPC) filled to a pressure of 3 bar. A total background rejection of between 99.3 and 99.8% can be achieved over the energy range 35–100 keV. Such results when coupled with an energy resolution of ∼ 2.7% at 60 keV make the K gated GSPC an attractive alternative to sodium iodide and germanium solid state detectors for application in high cosmic X-ray astronomy and other fields.