Use of propane as a quench gas in argon-filled proportional counters and comparison with other quench gases

An experimental investigation of propane and six other quench gases was carried out in argon-filled proportional counters. The objective of the study was to find the best gas mixture for optimizing the gas gain and the energy resolution as well as to understand the role of the ionization potential of quench gases in determining these parameters. It was found that the best gas gains and energy resolutions are obtained with propane, ethane, and isobutane in that order. The ionization potentials of these three lie below the argon metastable potentials and have the lowest value of resonance defect compared to the other quench gases. The better results obtained with these mixtures can be explained by an increased ionization yield resulting from the Penning effect. Propylene and trans-2-butene give inferior performance compared to the above three gases. Methane and carbon dioxide, the most commonly used quench gases in the argon-filled detectors, provide the worst results.