title: Development of a parallel-plate avalanche counter to perform conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy at low temperatures.
abstract: We describe an experimental setup based on a sealed parallel-plate avalanche counter, which allows conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy at temperatures down to 120 K. A study of the counting gas performances is carried out in order to find out the appropriate operating conditions. The detector can work in a wide range of pressures and voltages at room and low temperatures, for both iron- and tin-based Mössbauer transitions. An estimation of the gas gain is obtained by using a simple approach, which considers the avalanche gas process in parallel-plate geometry. The gas gain as a function of the filling pressure shows a maximum at room temperature and a monotonic increase at low temperature. The experimental setup has been tested with the determination of the Debye temperature of beta-Sn, SnO(2), and epsilon-FeSi.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio Nazionale MDM CNR-INFM, Via C. Olivetti 2, 20041 Agrate Brianza (MI), Italy. roberto.mantovan@mdm.infm.it
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mantovan
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fanciulli
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D013696:Temperature