Plasma panel-based radiation detectors

TL;DR

The plasma panel sensor (PPS) is a novel, low-cost, high-resolution gaseous radiation detector inspired by plasma display technology, capable of detecting various particles with fast response and potential broad applications.

Contribution

This paper introduces the PPS as a new type of radiation detector with experimental validation and discusses its potential for diverse radiation detection applications.

Findings

Successful detection of betas, protons, and cosmic muons.

High gain and fast response demonstrated in prototypes.

Potential for detecting alphas, heavy ions, neutrons, and X-rays.

Abstract

The plasma panel sensor (PPS) is a gaseous micropattern radiation detector under current development. It has many operational and fabrication principles common to plasma display panels. It comprises a dense matrix of small, gas plasma discharge cells within a hermetically sealed panel. As in plasma display panels, it uses nonreactive, intrinsically radiation-hard materials such as glass substrates, refractory metal electrodes, and mostly inert gas mixtures. We are developing these devices primarily as thin, low-mass detectors with gas gaps from a few hundred microns to a few millimeters. The PPS is a high gain, inherently digital device with the potential for fast response times, fine position resolution (<50-mm RMS) and low cost. In this paper, we report on prototype PPS experimental results in detecting betas, protons, and cosmic muons, and we extrapolate on the PPS potential for applications including the detection of alphas, heavy ions at low-to-medium energy, thermal neutrons, and X-rays.