The Relative Ionization Produced by Low Energy Protons, Deuterons and Alpha-Particles in Various Gases

Abstract

Mono-energetic neutrons have been used to produce recoil protons, deuterons and α-particles in a proportional counter The maximum pulse sizes produced by the different recoil particles are compared with the accurately known ratios of maximum recoil energies From the results for protons and deuterons it can be inferred that, for protons between 200 and 550 keV energy, the ionization is proportional to the energy with a deviation of less than 1% The total ionization in argon produced by a proton is about 8% greater than that of an α-particle of equal energy, for energies between 200 and 400 keV.