In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation, or reactions in a particle accelerator. Detectors can measure the particle energy and other attributes such as momentum, spin, charge, particle type, in addition to merely registering the presence of the particle.
Many of the detectors invented and used so far are ionization detectors (of which gaseous ionization detectors and semiconductor detectors are most typical) and scintillation detectors; but other, completely different principles have also been applied, like Čerenkov light and transition radiation.
Historical examples
Bubble chamber
Wilson cloud chamber (diffusion chamber)
Photographic plate
Detectors for radiation protection
The following types of particle detector are widely used for radiation protection, and are commercially produced in large quantities for general use within the nuclear, medical, and environmental fields.
Dosimeter
Electroscope (when used as a portable dosimeter)
Gaseous ionization detector
Geiger counter
Ionization chamber
Proportional counter
Scintillation counter
Semiconductor detector
Commonly used detectors for particle and nuclear physics
Gaseous ionization detector
Ionization chamber
Proportional counter
Multiwire proportional chamber
Drift chamber
Time projection chamber
Micropattern gaseous detector
Geiger–Müller tube
Spark chamber
Solid-state detectors:
Semiconductor detector and variants including CCDs
Silicon Vertex Detector
Solid-state nuclear track detector
Cherenkov detector
Ring-imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH)
Scintillation counter and associated photomultiplier, photodiode, or avalanche photodiode
Lucas cell
Time-of-flight detector
Transition radiation detector
Calorimeter
Microchannel plate detector
Neutron detector
Hermetic detector
Modern detectors in particle physics combine several of the above elements in layers much like an onion.