- #1
girts
- 186
- 22
Hello,
I read that in a scintillator before the photomultiplier tube is a crystal or sometimes gas or even sometimes a plastic, in other words a material which exerts luminosity under ionizing radiation. Say in the doped crystal for example, a high energy photon of say several Mev hits the crystal and the crystal then responds by emitting photons but in the lower frequency visible spectrum, here's what I don't understand, clearly photons have certain energy levels per photon, then where does the extra energy go if the resultant photons from the crystal are of lower frequency hence lower energy per photon?
I take from the famous photoelectric effect that light was firstly understood as not just a wave but also a discrete particle hence the resultant emitted electron was of corresponding energy to the incoming photon, but here in the crystal the outcoming photon is of lower frequency/energy than the incoming one or the one that struck the crystal in the first place, so my question is where is the missing energy?
My own guess maybe the incoming single high energy photon results in the scintillation of outgoing multiple lower energy photons , in other words the crystal works similar to a transformer?
I read that in a scintillator before the photomultiplier tube is a crystal or sometimes gas or even sometimes a plastic, in other words a material which exerts luminosity under ionizing radiation. Say in the doped crystal for example, a high energy photon of say several Mev hits the crystal and the crystal then responds by emitting photons but in the lower frequency visible spectrum, here's what I don't understand, clearly photons have certain energy levels per photon, then where does the extra energy go if the resultant photons from the crystal are of lower frequency hence lower energy per photon?
I take from the famous photoelectric effect that light was firstly understood as not just a wave but also a discrete particle hence the resultant emitted electron was of corresponding energy to the incoming photon, but here in the crystal the outcoming photon is of lower frequency/energy than the incoming one or the one that struck the crystal in the first place, so my question is where is the missing energy?
My own guess maybe the incoming single high energy photon results in the scintillation of outgoing multiple lower energy photons , in other words the crystal works similar to a transformer?