Abstract
CRYSTAL conduction counters offer an improvement in energy resolution over ionization chambers or scintillation counters for spectroscopy of nuclear particles. Semiconductor counters which employ a p–n junction are useful only for heavy charged particles of moderate energy. For energetic charged particles or γ-rays with ranges exceeding 1 mm. of silicon a crystal with efficient charge collection throughout its bulk is required. Most crystals of sufficiently high resistivity contain so many electron traps that collection of the ionization current is inefficient, and only diamond has previously been found to count single γ-ray events. The usefulness of diamond as a crystal counter is restricted.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
HARDING, W., HILSUM, C., MONCASTER, M. et al. Gallium Arsenide for γ-Ray Spectroscopy. Nature 187, 405 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1038/187405a0
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/187405a0
This article is cited by
-
Uncooled semiconductor detectors based on crystals of wide bandgap compounds grown from the gas phase
Atomic Energy (1999)
-
A Silicon γ-Ray Spectrometer
Nature (1960)