Modelling of an IR scintillation counter

A systematic study of the excitation and de-excitation mechanisms in ternary gas mixtures Ar + CO2 + N-2 is presented regarding the possibility of developing a proportional scintillation counter based on the detection of the infrared molecular emissions associated with the lowest vibrational states of molecules. The use of visible or near-infrared photons (lambda < 1 mu m) for applications like imaging and quality control of microstructure detectors has been reported. In view of these applications we analyse the processes leading to near-infrared emissions in pure argon and give an estimation of the number of photons emitted per electron, at several pressures, as a function of the charge gain. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.