Cosmic Ray Detector using Fluorescent Tubes


Posted on Feb 6, 2014

This project was deliberately aimed at developing a very low cost cosmic ray detector using common Fluorescent Tubes. It was based on variation of an experiment performed in 2000 by the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) laboratories by Dr. Schmeling which found a simple method for detecting and visualizing cosmic rays using everyda


Cosmic Ray Detector using Fluorescent Tubes
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y fluorescent tubes inside a wire mesh of feed with a high voltage. However one of the very best websites I have found on working Fluorescent Tube cosmic ray detectors is if you are interested in this type of design you could do no better. I have now begun building a number of other types of detectors due to a number of issues I identified in my design using Fluorescent Tubes below is what I had done so far. My first detector prototype was not that dissimilar to the CERN example, except the fluorescent tubes are placed between three metal plates. The outer plates are connected together by bolts and connected to the Negative rail of the supply and the centre plate is insulated by the fluorescent tubes and connected to the Positive rail of the supply. So far I have found the best result with small 6W fluorescent tubes is around 650V DC Like the CERN example, when a muon flys through the fluorescent tube, the gas inside ionizes due to the high voltage field across the plates. As a result of the ionization the resistance across the plates will fall slightly and so it should be possible to measure this as a change in current flow in the high voltage source. The reason for two rows of fluorescent tubes is to sense the crude presents of coincidence occurring in the top and bottom rows of fluorescent tubes due to a muon flying through both. I`m speculating that the resistance in the detector should be half compared with only one...




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