Abstract
The β-particles from
tritium have been used as an energy source for the ionization of gaseous
xenon, argon, neon, and oxygen. The ion currents determined from an ionization
chamber study of T2-gas mixtures enable the energy required to form
an ion pair (W value) to be
calculated for these gases. A series of fluorocarbon gases have also been
studied and their W values determined
for the first time. Consideration of the energy
transfer (Jesse) effect limits the usefulness of this technique to gases of
ionization potential of less than 15.5 eV.