Response of an Anthracene Scintillation Counter to 10–120 kev Electrons

Monoenergetic electrons from an electron accelerator were incident on a thin bare anthracene crystal centered on the photocathode of a RCA 6199 photomultiplier. A linear amplifier and single channel analyzer were used to obtain a pulse height distribution at each energy. The pulse height at the maximum of the distribution is a linear function of the incident electron energy with intercepts of 4.5 and 3.5 kev for 0.060- and 0.011-in. thick crystals, respectively. The pulse-height distribution could be fitted well with a Gaussian. The data indicate a linear relationship between the square of the full width of the pulse-height distribution at 1/e of the maximum and the electron energy. The average amount of electron energy absorbed in the crystal required to produce a photoelectron at the photocathode is 1.47±0.09 kev/photoelectron for the 0.060-in. crystal and 1.32±0.13 kev/photoelectron for the 0.011-in. crystal.