Talk:Ionization chamber

A fact from Ionization chamber appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 6 February 2005. The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that in the ionization chamber of a smoke detector, ions strike smoke particles and are neutralized, and this drop in current triggers the alarm? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2005/February.

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Someone needs to add a redirect so that searching for "ion chamber" will redirect to "ionization chamber". Colinsweet (talk) 05:25, 30 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done! Frotz (talk) 06:32, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

--Differences?--

I looked up Ionization chamber and Geiger counter to see the differences; but am even more muddled...it looks like they can be the same thing. I thought for Sure I/C's had only 22-90 volts potential across them, not "up to kilovolts". I though that was the real "difference"; as they both can be gas filled (a few mm) and do the same thing: provide an electron for a particle/ray collision.68.231.189.108 (talk) 17:02, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think the term 'ionization chamber' is sometimes used in two different senses - in one sense referring specifically to these low voltage type detectors, and in another sense as a more general umbrella term for chambers operating at whatever voltage that detect radiation/particles by the ionization they cause. Dumdidldumdum (talk) 18:37, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe I shouldn't answer this point since it's old but the difference between an ion chamber and a geiger counter is quite simple and it might be useful for someone.

An ion chamber: This has a small voltage on the electrodes that causes any produced ions (charge) in the chamber by radiation to slowly drift onto the electrodes and then be detected as a very small current. Hence the more intense the radiation the larger the current you detect.

A geiger-muller counter: This has a much larger voltage applied across it's chamber. As such any ion produced by the radiation is rapidly accelerated by the field. The fast moving ion has collisions which generate more ions which get accelerated and so on. Hence every ion no matter the source produces an "avalanche" and a pulse of current. The more intense the radiation the faster the pulses are generated. --Draco-Bob

I have overhauled the article to remove confusion with Geiger-Muller and proportional devices. There is an additional graphic to more clearly show generation of ion pairs and ion drift. Repeition and deviation have been removed and fragmentary edits have been consolidated. The article now takes the approach of a simple guide to the physics, and practical construction and uses of the ion chamber as a radiogical instrument. Dougsim (talk) 14:24, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The present text, in the paragraph starting with "The electric field also enables", confuses current mode with ionization chamber mode. One has nothing to do with the other. An ionization chamber is a gas filled radiation detector operated at a sufficient internal electric field to collect all (or nearly all) of the ions that are produced in the gas by the direct action of the incident radiation, avoiding ion recombination, but at an internal electric field below the onset of gas multiplication. A gas filled radiation detector operated in the proportional gas multiplication region is termed a "proportional chamber". In principle a gas filled detector can be operated in either ionization mode or proportional mode depending on the applied voltage, but the design and application of the device usually favors one of these modes over the other.

Current mode implies measurement of the average total ion production in the chamber gas by the average electric current induced in the external electrical circuit. Current mode stands in opposition to pulse counting mode in which each individual detection "event", such as an alpha particle passing through the chamber gas, produces a small cloud of ionization which can be read out electrically as a pulse and recorded as an increment on a counter. In principle an ionization chamber can be operated in either current mode or pulse mode, the main difference being the method for reading out the signal. Similarly, proportional chambers can be operated in either current mode or pulse counting mode. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shefsky (talk • contribs) 01:14, 3 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't want to stand on one side or the other as to the "correct" spelling, but this article is very inconsistent. To make things consistent with the article title, I am going change all occurrences of "ionisation" to "ionization" (and similarly for "ionizing" etc), unless I hear strong opinions to the contrary. Just thought I would bring it up here first. LaurentianShield (talk) 22:45, 3 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Ionization chamber/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Last edited at 13:31, 15 February 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 19:04, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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