Scintillation counter

Article By:

Brooks, Frank D. Department of Physics, University of Capetown, Rondebosch, South Africa.

Hofstadter, Robert Formerly, Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California. Nobelist.

Last reviewed:June 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.607400

A particle or radiation detector which operates through emission of light flashes that are detected by a photosensitive device, usually a photomultiplier or a silicon PIN diode. The scintillation counter not only can detect the presence of a particle, gamma ray, or x-ray, but can measure the energy, or the energy loss, of the particle or radiation in the scintillating medium. The sensitive medium may be solid, liquid, or gaseous, but is usually one of the first two. The scintillation counter is one of the most versatile particle detectors, and is widely used in industry, scientific research, medical diagnosis, and radiation monitoring, as well as in exploration for petroleum and radioactive minerals that emit gamma rays. Many low-level radioactivity measurements are made with scintillation counters. See also: Low-level counting

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