Inorganic vitreous detector material

Abstract

An inorganic vitreous detector material which in principle is composed of the three-component system consisting of metaphosphoric acid, aluminum metaphosphate, and zinc oxide, is used for the determination of the energy of particles of high energy. Such a material may additionally contain silicon dioxide and boron trioxide.

I claim: 
     
       1. An inorganic vitreous detector material having the properties of excellent energy resolution for impinging heavy ions and fission products, a high dependence of specific hole diameter with respect to impinging particle energy and as being substantially insensitive to background electrons and gamma-rays, said material consisting essentially of: a. silicon dioxide SiO 2  and boron trioxide B 2  O 3  in an amount not exceeding about 10% by weight; and   b. the balance, a three-component basic system consisting essentially of metaphosphoric acid, aluminum metaphosphate and zinc oxide within the following concentration limits: about 20 to 60% by weight of metaphosphoric acid HPO 3 ,   about 30 to 80% by weight of aluminum metaphosphate Al(PO 3 ) 3 , and   about 2 to 30% by weight of zinc oxide ZnO.     
     
     
       2. The inorganic vitreous detector material as defined by claim 1, wherein the concentration limits of said metaphosphoric acid, aluminum metaphosphate and zinc oxide are determined by the boundaries of the hatched area of the ternary diagram in FIG. 1. 
     
     
       3. The inorganic vitreous detector material as defined by claim 1, wherein said silicon dioxide SiO 2  is present in an amount of about 1% by weight and said boron trioxide is present in an amount of about 4.5% by weight. 
     
     
       4. The inorganic vitreous detector material as defined by claim 1, consisting essentially of: 9.0%, by weight, of zinc oxide ZnO,   34.2%, by weight, of aluminum metaphosphate Al(PO.sub. 3) 3 ,   51.3%, by weight, of metaphosphoric acid HPO 3 ,   4.5%, by weight, of boron trioxide B 2  O 3 , and   1.0%, by weight, of silicon dioxide SiO 2 .