The Determination of LET Spectra from Energy-proportional Pulse-height Measurements I. Track-length Distributions in Cavities

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Abstract
Observed pulse-height spectra from energy-proportional devices depend, in part, on the distribution of charged-particle track lengths in the sensitive volume of the device. A short bibliography on track-length distributions in cavities of various shapes is given and the results of available calculations are summarized. Analytic solutions or partial solutions exist for the distributions of chord lengths from isotropic tracks incident on a sphere, infinite slab and finite and infinite circular cylinders. The present paper utilizes a Monte Carlo technique to calculate chord-length distributions in right circular cylinders of finite length. The results obtained by this method agree with one set of published curves which, in turn, are in disagreement at short chord lengths with another set. The Monte Carlo method employed here can be used to calculate track-length distributions in cavities of arbitrary shapes bombarded by particles having any specified spatial distribution of track directions. The particle tracks need not span the cavity. The distributions are used in an accompanying paper, Part II, in the unfolding of LET spectra from pulse-height measurements.

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