Particle detector

In experimental and applied particle physics and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify high-energy particles, such as those produced by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation, or reactions in a particle accelerator. Modern detectors are also used as calorimeters to measure the energy of the detected radiation. They may also be used to measure other attributes such as momentum, spin, charge etc. of the particles.

Description

Detectors designed for modern accelerators are huge, both in size and in cost. The term "counter" is often used instead of "detector", when the detector counts the particles but does not resolve its energy or ionization. Particle detectors usually can also track ionizing radiation (high energy photons or even visible light). If their main purpose is radiation measurement, they are called "radiation detectors", but as photons are also (massless) particles, the term "particle detector" is still correct.

Examples and types

Many of the detectors invented and used so far are ionization detectors (of which gaseous ionization detectors and semiconductor detectors are most typical) and scintillation detectors; but other, completely different principles have also been applied, like Cherenkov light and transition radiation.

Historical Examples
* Bubble chamber
* Wilson cloud chamber, Diffusion chamber

Detectors for Radiation Protection
* Dosimeter
* Electroscope (miniature electroscopes are used as portable dosimeters)

Commonly used detectors for Particle and Nuclear Physics
* Calorimeter
* Time of flight detector
* Photographic plates
* Cherenkov detector, Aerogel detector
** RICH (Ring Imaging Cherenkov Detector)
* Transition radiation detector
* Scintillation counter and associated Photomultiplier or Photodiode/Avalanche photodiode
** Lucas cell
* Semiconductor detector
* Gaseous ionization detectors
** Ionization chamber, Proportional counter, Geiger-Müller tube
** Drift chamber,Jet chamber
** MicroStrip Gas Chamber (MSGC)
** Multiwire Proportional Chamber (MWPC)
** Resistive Plate Chamber
** Spark chamber,Wire chamber
** Straw chamber
** Streamer tube
** Time projection chamber (TPC)
* Z-sensitive Ionization and Phonon Detector coupled Superconducting Transition Edge Sensors (ZIP detectors)

Modern detectors

Modern detectors in particle physics combine several of the above elements in layers much like an onion.

Installations of particle detectors

At colliders

* At CERN
**for the LHC
***CMS
***ATLAS
***ALICE
***LHCb
**for the LEP
*** Aleph [http://teachers.web.cern.ch/teachers/archiv/HST2001/detectors/trackdata/ALEPH.htm]
*** Delphi [http://delphiwww.cern.ch/]
*** L3
*** Opal [http://opal.web.cern.ch/Opal]
**for the SPS
***The COMPASS Experiment
*** [http://hepweb.rl.ac.uk/ppUKpics/POW/pr_980624.html Gargamelle]
*** [http://na49info.cern.ch NA49]
*At Fermilab
**for the Tevatron
*** [http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/fermidet.html CDF]
*** [http://www-d0.fnal.gov/ D0]
*At DESY
**for HERA
***H1
***HERA-B
***HERMES
***ZEUS
*At BNL
**for the RHIC
***PHENIX
***Phobos (physics)
*** [http://www.star.bnl.gov STAR]
*At SLAC
**for the [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/ad/ADPEPII/ADPEPII.html PeP-II]
*** BaBar
**for the [http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/experiments/slc.html SLC]
*** [http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/detectors.html SLD]
*At Cornell
**for CESR
***CLEO
***CUSB
*Others
** [http://meco.ps.uci.edu/ MECO] from UC Irvine

Without colliders

*Super-Kamiokande
*AMANDA] eiectron

ee also

* List of particles

External articles and references

;Filmstrips
* "Radiation detectors". H. M. Stone Productions, Schloat. Tarrytown, N.Y., Prentice-Hall Media, 1972.

;General Information
* [http://rd11.web.cern.ch/RD11/rkb/titleD.html The Particle Detector BriefBook]
* [http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~adf4/cloud.html How to Build a Cloud Chamber]
*cite conference
last=Grupen | first=C.
title=Physics of Particle Detection
booktitle=AIP Conference Proceedings, Instrumentation in Elementary Particle Physics, VIII
pages=3–34 | volume=536
publisher=Dordrecht, D. Reidel Publishing Co.
date=June 28-July 10 1999 | location=Istanbul
doi=10.1063/1.1361756