Terms and Definitions
Online Flash Card for practice
Nuclear Force – Interactive Video
Nuclear Reactor
Nuclear Detectors
1. Geiger-Muller Counters
- Detects ionizing radiation (alpha, beta, and gamma).
- Comprises a Geiger-Muller tube with inert gas at low pressure.
- Ionizing particles cause gas ionization, creating an electrical pulse.
- Output: Clicks or counts indicating radiation level.
- Simple, robust, and effective for detecting beta and gamma radiation.
- Cannot differentiate particle types or measure energy.
2. Cloud Chambers
- Visualizes particle paths in supersaturated vapor (usually alcohol).
- Ionizing particles cause vapor condensation along their path.
- Produces visible tracks of charged particles.
- Useful in demonstrating and studying radioactive decay paths.
- Historically important for discovering particles like positrons.
- Primarily used for educational demonstrations today.
3. Scintillation Counters
- Detects ionizing radiation by emitting light in scintillating materials.
- Uses materials like NaI (sodium iodide) doped with thallium.
- Light emission is converted to an electrical signal by photomultiplier tubes.
- Can detect alpha, beta, and gamma particles.
- Widely used in medical, industrial, and research applications.
- Allows for energy measurement, unlike Geiger-Muller counters.
Audio Lecture on Nuclear Detectors
What is Doping in Scintillation Detector?
Unit Test
Penetrating power of neutron and relationship between mass number and nuclear radius
Nuclear fission vs nuclear fusion
