Ordinary Low Alpha Proportional Counter with Low Cost Commercial Data Acquisition System

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-cost, commercially available data acquisition system for low alpha proportional counters, enhancing their robustness against interference and simplifying operation in challenging environments.

Contribution

It presents a novel, affordable DAQ system combined with a physical model to improve low alpha counter performance and ease of use.

Findings

Enhanced counter capability demonstrated

Reduced sensitivity to electromagnetic interference

Simplified operation in ground-loop environments

Abstract

In this study, we present a low cost and commercially available data acquisition system (DAQ) for an ordinary low alpha proportional counter. By employing this DAQ system and aid of a simple physical model, we can easily rule out the common disadvantage of proportional type low alpha counters, such as sensitive to electromagnetic interference and vibration. The obtained results demonstrated that this method has improved the capability of an ordinary low alpha counter and even makes it easier to operate in a worse ground-loop laboratory.