Particle Physics Booklet - Particle Data Group - Lawrence Berkeley ...

244 28. Detectors at accelerators
28. PARTICLE DETECTORS AT ACCELERATORS
This is an abridgment of the discussion given in the full Review of
Particle Physics (the “full Review”); the equation and reference numbering
corresponds to that version. The quoted numbers are usually based on
typical devices, and should be regarded only as rough approximations
for new designs. A more detailed discussion of detectors can be found in
Refs. 1 and 56.
28.1. Summary of detector spatial resolution, temporal
resolution, and deadtime
In this section we give various parameters for common detector
components. The quoted numbers are usually based on typical devices,
and should be regarded only as rough approximations for new designs.
More detailed discussions of detectors and their underlying physics can
be found in books by Ferbel [1], Kleinknecht [2], Knoll [3], Green [4],
Leroy & Rancoita [5], and Grupen [6]. In Table 28.1 are given typical
resolutions and deadtimes of common detectors.
Table 28.1: Typical resolutions and deadtimes of common
detectors. Revised September 2009.
Resolution Dead
Detector Type Accuracy (rms) Time Time
Bubble chamber 10–150 μm 1 ms 50 msa Streamer chamber
Proportional chamber
300 μm
50–100 μm
2 μs 100 ms
a Drift chamber 50–100 μm
2 ns
2 ns
200 ns
d Scintillator — 100 ps/n
100 ns
a 10 ns
Emulsion 1 μm — —
Liquid argon drift [7] ∼175–450 μm ∼ 200 ns ∼ 2 μs
Micro-pattern gas detectors [8] 30–40 μm < 10 ns 20 ns
Resistive plate chamber [9] � 10 μm 1–2 ns —
Silicon strip pitch/(3 to 7) a a a
Silicon pixel 2 μma a a
a See full Review for qualifications and assumptions.
28.2. Photon detectors
Updated September 2009 by D. Chakraborty (Northern Illinois U) and
T. Sumiyoshi (Tokyo Metro U).
Most detectors in high-energy, nuclear, and astrophysics rely on the
detection of photons in or near the visible range, 100 nm � λ � 1000 nm,
or E ≈ a few eV. This range covers scintillation and Cherenkov radiation
as well as the light detected in many astronomical observations.
Generally, photodetection involves generating a detectable electrical
signal proportional to the (usually very small) number of incident photons.
28.2.1. Vacuum photodetectors : Vacuum photodetectors can be
broadly subdivided into three types: photomultiplier tubes, microchannel
plates, and hybrid photodetectors.
28.2.1.1. Photomultiplier tubes: A versatile class of photon detectors,
vacuum photomultiplier tubes (PMT) has been employed by a vast majority
of all particle physics experiments to date [11]. Both “transmission-”
and “reflection-type” PMT’s are widely used. In the former, the photocathode
material is deposited on the inside of a transparent window