Construction and Testing of a Large Acceptance Angle, Double Sided, Bragg Ionisation Chamber for Fission Fragment Spectroscopy

Abstract

This dissertation covers the construction and subsequent operation of a double sided, large acceptance angle Bragg Chamber by Duncan Hodge of the University of Manchester. The project was undertaken as the main body of work for the award of a Research Masters in Nuclear Physics, concluding on the 3rd of September 2012. Assembly and testing of the chamber were undertaken in the Nuclear Laboratory in the Schuster Building at the University of Manchester. The chamber is designed to have a source or target placed at its centre, allowing fission fragments to travel to either end of the chamber. There is an anode to detect fragments at both ends of the chamber; hence, the chamber is described as double sided. Segmented anodes were designed and partially configured to provide angular information of ions stopping in the chamber. Initial tests were carried out using a Californium 252 source placed at the centre of the chamber, ionising the isobutane gas used to fill the volume. Proof of operation of all anode segments was seen from associated preamplifier outputs attached to an oscilloscope. Energy spectra were obtained for an unsegmented anode configuration within the chamber and associated resolutions were extracted for different operating conditions. The most efficient chamber operating conditions used were ascertained by means of a pseudo-energy resolution and ratio between the number of counts in light fragment and heavy fragment peaks.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	David Cullen (Supervisor) & Alastair Smith (Supervisor)