bubble chambers
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 10:30 am
Thomas Rapp sent me a couple of nice papers on bubble chambers that look within reach of an amateur, which I will attempt to sanitize somewhat and put up here.
One is a propane based design and runs at a few bars, but the fascinating one is one that runs at STP and room temperature! In the latter design the bubbles are from
a CO2 solution in hexane and the temp gradient is done by room temp at the bottom, and a heating lamp at the top. Since in either case the working fluid is hydrogenous, this
bodes well for it being a real time neutron detector, and might solve the neutron beaming detection issue Tyler and I are talking about on another thread here in a
really slick way. Supposing you could put this together with something like a pair of glass plates and make it the size of a sheet of paper and set it over the fusor, you
should be able to see where the neutrons are coming out with a video camera on it (or a mirror) so you don't have to get into the rad field to observe the actual pattern.
The author claims the C02/hexane thing works continuously for 15 min or so without having to re-solve the CO2 that bubbles out.
One wonders if any clear carbonated fluid might work -- beer, anyone?
For those who have access and can't wait they are:
Propane bubble chamber in a high magnetic field, RevSciIns, vol 28 #2 feb 1957,
Larry O. Oswald
and
Improved continuously sensitive bubble chamber RevSciIns vol 32 #8 Aug 1961
Ryuhei Kato
I am wondering if that if the need is for shorter time use, you don't need the temp gradient on that latter one, in which case making what I have in mind would be really easy,
mainly getting the container clean enough to not seed bubbles itself and making it easy to fill and drain to get a "map" of neutron outputs.
One is a propane based design and runs at a few bars, but the fascinating one is one that runs at STP and room temperature! In the latter design the bubbles are from
a CO2 solution in hexane and the temp gradient is done by room temp at the bottom, and a heating lamp at the top. Since in either case the working fluid is hydrogenous, this
bodes well for it being a real time neutron detector, and might solve the neutron beaming detection issue Tyler and I are talking about on another thread here in a
really slick way. Supposing you could put this together with something like a pair of glass plates and make it the size of a sheet of paper and set it over the fusor, you
should be able to see where the neutrons are coming out with a video camera on it (or a mirror) so you don't have to get into the rad field to observe the actual pattern.
The author claims the C02/hexane thing works continuously for 15 min or so without having to re-solve the CO2 that bubbles out.
One wonders if any clear carbonated fluid might work -- beer, anyone?
For those who have access and can't wait they are:
Propane bubble chamber in a high magnetic field, RevSciIns, vol 28 #2 feb 1957,
Larry O. Oswald
and
Improved continuously sensitive bubble chamber RevSciIns vol 32 #8 Aug 1961
Ryuhei Kato
I am wondering if that if the need is for shorter time use, you don't need the temp gradient on that latter one, in which case making what I have in mind would be really easy,
mainly getting the container clean enough to not seed bubbles itself and making it easy to fill and drain to get a "map" of neutron outputs.