Xenon-neon gas proportional scintillation counters: experimental and simulation results

The consequences of a limited amount of charge multiplication on the electroluminescence yield and the energy resolution R of a xenon-neon gas proportional scintillation counter were studied using both Monte Carlo simulation and experimental measurements. By extrapolating the experimental results for R to infinite light yield, the intrinsic energy resolution for 5.9 keV x rays was obtained in all mixtures. From the results, Fw values can be obtained, where F is the relative variance in the number of primary electron.