Effect of Energetic Secondary Electrons on the Scintillation Process in Alkali Halide Crystals

Experimental results have previously shown that the scintillation efficiency of alkali halide crystals to heavy particles is not a function of $\frac{\mathrm{dE}}{\mathrm{dx}}$ alone but is instead composed of a series of discrete functions, one for each incident particle. This paper presents an analysis of these experimental results with attention to the effect of energetic secondary electrons (delta rays) produced by the primary particle. In this treatment the total light emitted per unit path length of the incident particle is the sum of two contributions: one from the highly ionized primary column, and one from those delta rays which escape the primary column and produce light with a high efficiency.