Production of High Energy Photons

Brian Fisher     Brian DeMarco     Jenny Sweitzer

Faculty Advisors - Steve Padalino and Kurt Fletcher

Funded in part by The U.S. Department of Energy

A good description of the project is given in this abstract submitted to the March 1996 APS meeting:

The ability to produce high energy protons is requisite for high energy calibrations of charged particle spectrometers used in plasma research. Production of such protons using the ³He(d,p)He⁴ reaction has been accomplished at State University of New York at Geneseo using helium-3 implanted targets fabricated at Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory. The ³He(d,p)He⁴ reaction protons energies were measured with a silicon surface barrier detector telescope. The telescope, composed of two detectors working in coincidence and set in tandem, measured the protons energy loss as they passed through the first and then the second detector. The protons were uniquely identified by their energy losses through each of the detectors.

HOW IT WAS DONE

How do we get high energy protons?

A nuclear reaction!  

no coincidence with coincidence

click on pictures to see an enlarged image