Detectors Based on Scintillation

Abstract

When ionising radiation interacts with matter it will excite or ionise a large number of molecules. When these molecules return to the ground state, this will sometimes give rise to the emission of photons in the visible or near to the visible energy range. This phenomenon has as scientific name ‘radioluminescence’, but it is more commonly called scintillation. Observation of the scintillation process was one of the first techniques used for the detection of ionising radiation. Rutherford used zinc sulphide scintillating crystals in his famous scattering experiment that showed that all the positive charge in atoms was concentrated in the nucleus. Today the use of scintillators is still one of the main methods for radiation detection.