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Measuring energy loss of alpha particles in different vacuum conditions

LOW ENERGY ACCELERATOR AND RADIATION APPLICATIONS

Measuring energy loss of alpha particles in different vacuum conditions

CHENG Yi
TUO Xianguo
HUANG Lianmei
LI Zhe
YANG Jianbo
ZHOU Chuanwen
SONG Qianqian
Nuclear Science and TechniquesVol.22, No.3pp.151-155Published in print 20 Jun 2011
44600

In this paper, energy loss of alpha particles in different vacuum levels is studied experimentally and via theoretical analysis. A better understanding of energy loss of α particle in vacuum will help detect more exact numbers of alpha particles. Two 239Pu sources are used to measure the energy loss of α particle crossing different vacuum levels (different air pressures). The experimental data are obtained from an instrument – PAM-100 developed by authors. The experimental results have shown that increasing vacuum levels will lead to more alpha residual energy but less energy loss. When the vacuum level reaches 0.04 MPa, alpha particles (239Pu, 5.115 MeV) will lose the energy of about 0.175 MeV with traversing 5 mm distance. Theoretical calculations have shown a good agreement with experimental results. This implies that the instrument has a high accuracy and could be applied in field work.

Vacuum levelAlpha particleEnergy loss239Pu
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