By C Leroy and P G Rancoita
World Scientific
Also available at the CERN bookshop
Based on a series of lectures given to undergraduate and graduate students over several years, this book provides a comprehensive and clear presentation of the physics principles that underlie radiation detection.
To detect particles and radiation, the effects of their interaction with matter, when passing through it, have to be studied. The development of increasingly sophisticated and precise detectors has made possible many important discoveries and measurements in particle and nuclear physics.
The book, which has reached its 4th edition thanks to its good reception by readers, is organised into two main parts. The first is dedicated to an extensive treatment of the theories of particle interaction, of the physics and properties of semiconductors, as well as of the displacement damage caused in semiconductors by traversing radiation.
The second part focuses on the techniques used to reveal different kinds of particles, and the relative detectors. Detailed examples are presented to illustrate the operation of the various types of detectors. Radiation environments in which these mechanisms of interaction are expected to take place are also described. The last chapter is dedicated to the application of particle detection to medical physics for imaging. Two appendices and a very rich bibliography complete the volume.
This latest edition of the book has been fully revised, and many sections have been extended to give as complete a treatment as possible of this developing field of study and research. Among other things, this edition provides a treatment of Coulomb scattering on screened nuclear potentials resulting from electrons, protons, light ions and heavy ions, which allows the corresponding non-ionising energy-loss (NIEL) doses deposited in any material to be derived.
