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Registered Member #2893
Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242
I have always wondered something: what if one was to take the AM241 button from a smoke alarm and put it in a low pressure penning mixture? Could this be enough to ionize the neon? If not, could it lower the ionization voltage to such an extent than one could make a "neon led"?
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Grenadier wrote ...
I have always wondered something: what if one was to take the AM241 button from a smoke alarm and put it in a low pressure penning mixture? Could this be enough to ionize the neon? If not, could it lower the ionization voltage to such an extent than one could make a "neon led"?
Some cold cathode discharge devices and some gas switches such as krytrons and trigatrons contain radioactive micro-sources - typically, but not always 63Ni - to overcome starter delay at low pressures by pre-ionizing the fill gas. Radioactive pre-ionisation is also sometimes used in ultra-fast Marx gas switches.
As an example only, see US Patent 4761583 Glow discharge starter containing radioactive alloy
241Am alphas are just dying to bump into an electron and become a puff of neutral helium gas, which would tend to accumulate over time, altering the properties of the fill gas.
63Ni is an emitter of feeble betas - i.e. electrons - and so does not have the problems of 241Am. It also has a half-life nigh on 100 years, so that its performance as a source will remain practically constant over a reasonable device service life.
Any sort of work with 63Ni requires special care, because its betas are too feeble to detect with GM tubes and regular personal dosimeters. Being difficult to detect, 63Ni contamination can build up unawares.
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