Cloud

Chambers

Tahir and Ahda

What is it?
The cloud chamber is a
particle detector used
for detecting ionizing
radiation.

What is it?
The study of high energy particles was greatly aided in 1912
when C. T. R. Wilson, a Scottish physicist, devised the cloud
chamber. The general procedure was to allow water to
evaporate in an enclosed container to the point of saturation
and then lower the pressure, producing a super-saturated
volume of air. Then the passage of a charged particle would
condense the vapor into tiny droplets, producing a visible trail
marking the particle's path

What is it?
The device came to be called the Wilson cloud chamber and
was used widely in the study of radioactivity. An alpha particle
left a broad, straight path of definite length while an electron
produced a light path with bends due to collisions.
Gamma rays did not produce a visible track since they produce
very few ions in air. The Wilson cloud chamber led to the
discovery of recoil electrons from x-ray and gamma ray
collisions, and was used to discover the first intermediate mass
particle, the muon. Wilson was awarded the Nobel Prize in
physics in 1927 for the development of the cloud chamber.

How it works
When an alpha particle or beta particle from the source enters
the cloud chamber, it interacts with the super saturated mixture
and ionizes it. The resulting ion acts as a condensation nuclei,
around which a mist will form (because the mixture is super
saturated).
The high energies of beta and alpha particles mean that a trail
is left due to many collisions of the particles with air molecules.

How it works
The images at left are typical of those obtained
by Wilson (C. T. R. Wilson, Proc. Roy. Soc.
(London), 87, 292 (1912)). The cloud chamber
provided a device for studying the collisions
between free particles and the decay of particles
in flight

What happens
Ions are produced along the path of the charged
particle. These tracks have distinctive shapes (for
example, an alpha particles track is broad and
straight, while an electrons is thinner and shows more
evidence of deflection by collisions).
If a uniform magnetic field is applied across the cloud
chamber, positively and negatively charged particles
will curve in opposite directions. Lighter particles will
execute a circle of smaller radius.

Summary
A cloud chamber is basically an enclosed container where water is
evaporated until a saturated mixture is produced, and the pressure is then
lowered, consequently producing a super saturated volume of air. Any
moving charged particles will condense the vapor into tiny droplets,
producing a distinctive trail
In a cloud chamber, the path of a particle appears as a track of mist called a
cloud track. By studying the track, or a photograph of it, a physicist can
determine the energy and electric charge of the particle that produced it.
Every kind of particle has a characteristic cloud track, which varies in shape,
length, and width. Many elementary particles have been discovered through
their characteristic cloud track.