A New Quenching Circuit for Geiger Counters

Abstract

A quenching circuit is described that works on the multivibrator principle but uses two different grids of the input tube for the signal and for the regenerative feedback. The initial discharge in the counter excites the counter to one oscillation during which the counting voltage is kept below threshold and the counter has time to recover. At the end of the oscillation (after about 0.2 millisecond) the countervoltage and all other voltages are rapidly restored to their initial values. Thus the next count will take place under exactly the same conditions as the first; all amplifier pulses will be equal; no discharges will take place in the Geiger counter while the amplifier is unable to quench them; and corrections for dead time will be quite simple.