Ionization of Liquids by Radiation. I. Methods for Determination of Ion Mobilities and Ion Yields at Low Voltage

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Abstract
Experimental methods are described in detail for determination of ion mobilities and of the zero‐field conductivity induced by irradiation of insulating liquids with x rays. The yield of separated ions is thereby obtained with an accuracy of ±11% and is found to be 0.10 ion pairs per 100 eV for hexane at 23°C. The physical processes resulting from absorption of high‐energy radiation are less well understood for liquids than for gases. Though it has long been thought that most ions produced in liquids disappear immediately by initial recombination, with only a small fraction of the excitation events leading to real charge separation, no actual measurement of the yield of separated charges was available when we first undertook to make this determination (late in 1961). From the magnitude of this value for different liquids and its dependence on temperature we may hope to deduce something about the behavior of slow electrons in liquids and the geometrical distribution of the radiation‐induced electric charges.

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