Geiger-M

uller Counter
Diptanil Roy1
1

National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar

(Dated: September 11, 2016)

This report describes the experimental procedure we used to understand the working of a GeigerM
uller (GM) counter. We found the operating voltage of the GM Counter from the plateau and
calculated the dead time and efficiency. We also analysed the counting statistics using Gaussian
distribution. The linear dependence of absorption of rays on thickness of absorbing material was
also explored.

I.INTRODUCTION

Radioactivity refers to the particles which are emitted

from nuclei as a result of nuclear instability. Because the
nucleus experiences the intense conflict between the two
strongest forces in nature, it should not be surprising that
there are many nuclear isotopes which are unstable and
emit some kind of radiation. The most common types of
radiation are called alpha, beta, and gamma radiation,
but there are several other varieties of radioactive decay.
Radioactive decay rates are normally stated in terms of
their half-lives, and the half-life of a given nuclear species
is related to its radiation risk.Radioactivity, or the activity of a radioactive source, is measured in units equivalent
to the number of disintegrations per second (dps) or disintegrations per minute (dpm). The SI unit for activity
is called the Becquerel (Bq) and one Becquerel is equal
to one disintegration per second.
The different types of radioactivity lead to different
decay paths which transmute the nuclei into other chemical elements. Examining the amounts of the decay products makes possible radioactive dating. Radiation from
nuclear sources is distributed equally in all directions,
obeying the inverse square law.

II.APPARATUS

Geiger-Mller (GM) counters were invented by H.

Geiger and E.W. Mller in 1928, and are used to detect
radioactive particles ( and ) and rays ( and x). A GM
tube usually consists of an airtight metal cylinder closed
at both ends and filled with a gas that is easily ionized
(usually neon, argon, and halogen). One end consists of
a window which is a thin material, mica, allowing the entrance of alpha particles. (These particles can be shielded
easily.) A wire, which runs lengthwise down the center
of the tube, is positively charged with a relatively high
voltage and acts as an anode. The tube acts as the cathode. The anode and cathode are connected to an electric
circuit that maintains the high voltage between them.
When the radiation enters the GM tube, it will ionize
some of the atoms of the gas. Due to the large electric
field created between the anode and cathode, the result-

FIG. 1: Schematics of GM tube

ing positive ions and negative electrons accelerate toward

the cathode and anode, respectively. Electrons move or
drift through the gas at a speed of about 104 m/s, which
is about 104 times faster than the positive ions move.
The electrons are collected a few microseconds after they
are created, while the positive ions would take a few milliseconds to travel to the cathode. As the electrons travel
toward the anode they ionize other atoms, which produces a cascade of electrons called gas multiplication or a
(Townsend) avalanche. The multiplication factor is typically 106 to 108 . The resulting discharge current causes
the voltage between the anode and cathode to drop. The
counter (electric circuit) detects this voltage drop and
recognizes it as a signal of a particles presence. There
are additional discharges triggered by UV photons liberated in the ionization process that start avalanches away
from the original ionization site. These discharges are
called Geiger-Mller discharges. These do not effect the
performance as they are short-lived. The positive ions
may still have enough energy to start a new cascade.
One (early) method was external quenching which was
done electronically by quickly ramping down the voltage in the GM tube after a particle was detected. This
means any more electrons or positive ions created will
not be accelerated towards the anode or cathode, respectively. The electrons and ions would recombine and no
more signals would be produced. The modern method
is called internal quenching. A small concentration of a
polyatomic gas (organic or halogen) is added to the gas
in the GM tube. The quenching gas is selected to have a
lower ionization potential (10 eV) than the fill gas (26.4

2
eV). When the positive ions collide with the quenching
gass molecules, they are slowed or absorbed by giving
its energy to the quenching molecule. They break down
the gas molecules in the process (dissociation) instead of
ionizing the molecule. Any quenching molecule that may
be accelerated to the cathode dissociates upon impact
producing no signal. If organic molecules are used, GM
tubes must be replaced as they loss they permanently
break down over time (about one billion counts). However, the GM tube we are using uses a halogen molecule,
which naturally recombines after breaking apart.

minimum time separation is usually called the dead time

of the counting system. Because of the random nature of
radioactive decay, there is always some probability that
a true event will be lost because it occurs too quickly
following a preceding event. Figure 3 gives a brief idea of

III. OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS

Operating Plateau of the Geiger Tube

The purpose of this experiment is to determine the

voltage plateau for the Geiger tube and to establish a
reasonable operating point for the tube.
1. Source: Co-60
2. Exposure: 30 seconds

FIG. 3: Dead Time Models: Paralyzable and Non-paralyzable

the two models used for estimating dead time. We used

the non-paralyzable model in our calculations. A fixed
time is assumed to follow each true event that occurs
during the live period of the detector. True events that
occur during the dead period are lost and assumed to
have no effect whatsoever on the behaviour of the detector for non-paralyzable model. If the system dead-time is
, and the measured count is m, the true count predicted
by non-paralyzable model is expressed as
m
n=
1 m
Let n1 , n2 , n12 be the true counts with sources S1 , S2
and (S1 + S2 ) respectively. Let m1 , m2 , m12 be the
corresponding observed rates. Also, let nb and mb be
the true and measured background rates with both the
sources removed. The dead time is then given by

X(1 1 Z)
=
Y
where
X = m1 m2 mb m12
Y = m1 m2 (m12 + mb ) mb m12 (m1 + m2 )
Y (m1 + m2 m12 mb )
Z =
X2

FIG. 2: Determination of Operating Voltage

The operating voltage is chosen to be 920 V for this

entire experiment.

TABLE I: Data for Dead Time

Resolution of Dead time

In nearly all detector systems, there will be a minimum

amount of time that separates two events in order that
they may be recorded as two separate pulses. In some
cases the limiting time may be set by processes in the
detector itself, while in other cases the limit may arise
due to the delays associated with the electronics. This

Sr-90
Co-60
S12

m
35986
4791
39958

(s)
2.55E-06
2.55E-06
2.55E-06

n
39617.61
4850.192
44485.97

Error(%)
10.09172
1.235481
11.33183

The dead-time for our Geiger Tube is reported as 2.55

s.

3
From Table I, it is clear that the percentage is correction
increases with higher counts which is obvious because of
the proximity of simultaneous counts in such cases.

with a single measurement.

The theoretical and the fit values match excellently for
TABLE II: The theoretical and fit values for a mean, standard
deviation and percentage of counts within width

Counting Statistics

Radioactive decay is a random process. Consequently,

any measurement based on observing the radiation emitted in a nuclear decay is subject to some degree of statistical fluctuations. These inherent fluctuations are unavoidable in all nuclear measurements. The term counting statistics includes the framework of statistical analysis required to process the results of nuclear counting
experiments and to make predictions about the expected
precision of quantities derived from these measurements.
Although each measurement (number of decays in a given
interval) for a radioactive sample is independent of all
previous measurements (due to randomness of the process), for a large number of individual measurements the
deviation of the individual count rates from the average
count rate behaves in a predictable manner. Small deviations from the average are much more likely than large
deviations. These statistical fluctuations in the nuclear
decay can be understood from the statistical models utilizing Gaussian (Normal) distribution.
There are two major applications of counting statistics

Theoretical
Experimental
Mean

Y (%) Mean

Y (%)
6.5
2.38
68
7.08
2.42
61
Background
2105.35 49.39
68
2097.29 48.18
68
Tl-204

FIG. 5: Gaussian Fit for source and background noise counts

with fit parameters

all the parameters. Minor deviations are introduced by

the apparatus, such as spurious counts due to voltage
surges, sparks in the tube or change of the background
during the course of the experiment.
Efficiency of Geiger-Muller counter

FIG. 4: Gaussian Fit for Background Noise with fit parameters

in nuclear measurements. The first application involves

the use of statistical analysis to determine whether a set
of multiple measurements of the same physical quantity
shows an amount of internal fluctuation that is consistent
with statistical predictions. In this case the motivation
is to determine whether a particular counting system is
functioning normally. The second application is more
important in which we examine these methods to make
a prediction about the uncertainty one should associate

To find the disintegration rate, we change from microCuries (Ci) to disintegrations per minute (dpm).
The disintegrations per minute unit is equivalent to the
counts per minute from the GM tube, because each disintegration represents a particle emitted. The conversion
factor is
1Ci = 2.22 1012 dpm or 1Ci = 2.22 106 dpm
Multiplying this by the activity of the source, we get the
expected counts per minute of the source. The efficiency
can then be expressed as
% efficiency =

r 100
CK

In this formula, r is the measured activity in cpm, C is

the expected activity of the source in Ci, and K is the
conversion factor.

4
TABLE III: Efficiency of Geiger Counter (Counts of 60 s)
Source
Sr-90
Cs-137

Counts
16883
6980

Corrected
17641.69
7106.351

Expected
222000
555000

Efficiency(%)
7.946709
1.280424

Absorption of gamma rays in materials

The relation between the number of beta particles/

gamma rays that enter the medium and the number that
come out is as follows:
N = N0 ex
where N is the no. of emergent particles/ rays, N0 is
the no. of incident particles/ rays, is a property of
the medium called the linear attenuation coefficient and
x is the thickness of the absorbing medium. A plot of
ln N vs. x is therefore a straight line. The probability of
interaction is given in terms of the Coulomb scattering
cross-section (C ) which is related to as

C =
ne
where ne is the number of electrons per unit volume in
the material. Most particles undergo multiple scattering
passing through matter. Beta particles especially may
be scattered through large angles. Radiation scattered
through approximately 180 deg is said to be backscattered. For Geiger counters, the fraction of radiation
emitted away from the GM tube that strikes the material supporting the sample. It is deflected toward the
tube window and is counted. The motive behind this exTABLE IV: Absorption of rays at varying thickness of Al-13
mg
Thickness ( cm
2)
141
170
258
425
645

Counts
16914
16101
10048
3886
596

Corrected(N)
17675.546
16789.605
10311.935
3924.851
596.906

ln(N)
4.247
4.225
4.013
3.594
2.776

periment is to study the effect of the size of the nucleus

on backscattering since this would seem most likely effect
the number of backscattered beta particles. This can be
determined by using absorbers as backing materials.
From the linear fit Figure [6], the value of slope i.e ,
the absorption coefficient is found to be 0.00283 m1 .
Using the equation for Coulomb scattering cross-section
(c ), we have c = 0.946 millibarn.
IV.ERROR ANALYSIS

The errors in this experiment are mostly statistical

in nature. However, there are some random errors in

FIG. 6: Dependence of absorption on thickness

the form of sudden voltage fluctuations, change of background during the experiment etc. The errors in the fitting parameters have been reported along with the corresponding graphs.

V.CONCLUSION

We took a look at some of the basic features involved

while using a Geiger counter. The operating voltage was
chosen in the plateau region where the counter showed
near-steady behaviour. The dead-time was calculated
using the non-paralyzable model and was within the expected range of 1s to 100s. The counting statistics
part of the experiment revealed that the distribution of
the counts recorded by the GM counter over 100 iterations of the process follow a Gaussian distribution and
are pretty accurate. We also realised an effective method
to cancel background noise using statistical analysis. We
also measured the efficiency of the Geiger counter by
measuring the activity of 2 different radioactive elements.
Finally, we obtained the linear dependence of absorption
of rays by a metal and its thickness. We couldnt obtain the dependence of absorption on due to lack of
absorbing materials of identical thickness.

[1] UCLA: http://demoweb.physics.ucla.edu/content/experiment7-radioactivity [Lab Manual]

[2] Geiger-Mueller Counting, Ian Rittersdorf, Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences
[3] GM Counter, School of Physical Sciences, NISER laboratory manual