Spark-chamber detector

Spark-chamber detector

A spark-chamber detector is a particle detector, a device used in particle physics for detecting electrically charged particles. It was most widely-used in the 1970s, and has since been superseded by more sophisticated detectors such as drift chambers and silicon detectors. Spark chambers are still of scientific value due to their relative simplicity.

Spark-chamber detectors consists of metal plates placed in a sealed box filled with a gas such as helium, neon or a mixture of the two. As a charged particle travels through the detector, it will ionize the gas between the plates. A trigger system is used to apply high voltage to the plates to create an electric field immediately after the particle goes through the chamber, producing sparks on its exact trajectory.

Spark-chamber detectors are generally less accurate than bubble-chamber detectors, but can be made highly selective with the help of auxiliary detectors, making them useful in searching for very rare events.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • spark chamber — Physics. a device for detecting elementary particles, consisting of a series of charged plates separated by a gas so that the passage of a charged particle causes sparking between adjacent plates. [1960 65] * * * ▪ radiation detector… …   Universalium

  • spark chamber — noun an instrument that detects ionizing radiation from elementary particles • Syn: ↑spark counter • Hypernyms: ↑particle detector …   Useful english dictionary

  • spark counter — noun an instrument that detects ionizing radiation from elementary particles • Syn: ↑spark chamber • Hypernyms: ↑particle detector …   Useful english dictionary

  • 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,… …   Wikipedia

  • Wire chamber — Drift chamber at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris …   Wikipedia

  • Cloud chamber — with visible tracks from ionizing radiation (short, thick: α particles; long, thin: β particles). See also Animated Version Video of a Cloud chamber in action The cloud chamber, a …   Wikipedia

  • MicroMegas detector — The “Micromegas “ (Micro MEsh Gaseous Structure) detector is a gaseous particle detector coming from the development of wire chamber. Invented in 1992[1] by Georges Charpak and Ioannis Giomataris, the Micromegas detectors are mainly used in… …   Wikipedia

  • particle detector — noun a chamber in which particles can be made visible • Hypernyms: ↑chamber • Hyponyms: ↑bubble chamber, ↑cloud chamber, ↑Wilson cloud chamber, ↑spark chamber, ↑spark counter …   Useful english dictionary

  • Bubble chamber — A bubble chamber is a vessel filled with a superheated transparent liquid (most often liquid hydrogen) used to detect electrically charged particles moving through it. It was invented in 1952 by Donald A. Glaser, for which he was awarded the 1960 …   Wikipedia

  • Crystal Ball (detector) — The Crystal Ball is a hermetic particle detector used initially with the SPEAR particle accelerator at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center beginning in 1979. It was designed to detect neutral particles and was used to discover the ηc meson.… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”