Abstract
Korff and Present's1 theory of self-quenching counters that the spread of the discharge is caused by photo-ionization has had no experimental support so far. On the contrary, it has been recently established2 that radiations produced from a Townsend avalanche in a self-quenching Geiger counter give rise to photo-emission from the cathode sufficient to spread the discharge along the anode. These investigations do not, however, rule out the possibility of photo-ionization occurring in these tubes. The ultra-violet radiations produced from excited argon atoms in a Townsend avalanche are quite energetic, and may give rise to photo-ionization of polyatomic gas of the filling mixture. We have established experimentally in a simple but convincing manner that this is so.
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References
Korff, S. A., and Present, R. D., Phys. Rev., 65, 274 (1944).
Huster, E., and Ziegler, E., Z. Phys., 146, 281 (1956); 149, 583 (1957). Chaudhri, R. M., Khan, M. Y., and Yunas, M., Nature, 179, 1364 (1957).
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CHAUDHRI, R., KHAN, M., KHAWAJA, A. et al. Photo-ionization in Self-quenching Geiger Counters. Nature 181, 1526–1527 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1811526a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1811526a0
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