A LARGE-AREA LIQUID SCINTILLATION COUNTER AND SOME MEASUREMENTS ON HIGH-ENERGY COSMIC-RAY PARTICLES

A liquid scintillation counter is described which consists of a [Formula: see text] in. by [Formula: see text] in. by 2 in. Plexiglas tank of terphenyl plus α-naphthylphenyloxazole (αNPO) in triethylbenzene. The tank is surrounded by MgO powder and viewed by a total of eight RCA Type 5819 photomultiplier tubes along two opposite edges. For normally incident fast μ-mesons a peaked pulse height distribution is observed, 20.5% in width at half-maximum for the central area of the counter, broadening to 25–30% at the perimeter, and estimated to be 25% over-all. When the Landau distribution in energy loss (width 18% at half-maximum) and the geometric spread are taken into account, a counter resolution function 8% in width at half-maximum is obtained for the central area of the counter, or 18% for the counter as a whole.The most probable pulse height for 0.30 Bev. μ-mesons is 1.6 ± 0.5% higher than for 2.2 Bev. μ-mesons, in close agreement with the Bethe–Bloch theory as extended by Symon and with a density correction calculated by the method of Sternheimer. Pulse heights from protons in the region 0.3 to 0.8 Bev. vary directly with the theoretically computed energy loss in the counter. Peak position and resolution are unchanged by a flux of 12 mr./hr. of thorium γ-rays.