NEW ADVANCES IN SPARK DETECTORS

Several experiments carried out in our laboratory during the last two years, have led to the introduction of simple techniques for the const ruction of highly reliable spark counters of the Chang-Rosenblum type. A systematic study on the behaviour of such counters has shown that t hrough the use of a new electronic technique to interrupt the discharg e and by a suitable choice of the filling gas, it was possible to redu ce drastically the radiation damage in the cathode and to obtain plate aux of 2 kV with a slope < 0.01%/V. It is shown that the techniques us ed have decreased the dead time of the counter by a factor 10(2) and i ts life was increased by a factor 10(3)/CM of anode length.