Another simple alpha particle detector for radioactive radiation without the use of high voltage. Powered by only 9V using a homemade ionization chamber. Suitable for demonstration purposes or as a point of interest.
This is the second simple alpha particle detector for radioactive radiation. It uses a homemade ionization chamber made of a tin can and copper wire. The can is sandblasted on the inside. The electronics are powered with 9V (e.g. from a battery), trimmer R7 sets the zero deflection on the analog meter or 0mV on the digital multimeter. In the circuit, a analog meter with a sensitivity of 100uA (150, 200uA) can be used or measured on a 400mV/2V range with a digital multimeter. It might be advisable to shield all the electronics with another part of the can, but I have not noticed any problem with this wiring.
The first alpha particle detector uses high voltages of units of kV and the article is here.
The detector is only sensitive to alpha radiation. For the demonstration I am using americium-241 from a fire detector as a source of alpha radiation. Suitable americium-241 can also be found for example here in the ionization chamber for the detector on aliexpress.
https://www.vn-experimenty.eu/en/radioaktivita/jednoduchy-detektor-alfa-castic.html?filter_tag%5B0%5D=21#sigProIdb7285fcb83