Development of segmented ionization chamber technologies for high-precision low-rate experiments

The construction of a Frisch grid ionization chamber with positional sensitivity to ionizing particles is presented in this work. The SCI-CASTER project in the Simon Fraser University Nuclear Science Laboratory aims to achieve both high energy resolution and the ability to perform full 3D reconstruction of ionizing particle tracks. SCI-CASTER prototype 1.9 is discussed in this work as the first prototype detector in the SCI-CASTER project that has demonstrated sensitivity to the spherical azimuthal angle of emission of alpha particles emitted from an electroplated triple-alpha source. A dedicated test setup for conducting experiments with ionization chamber detectors has also been established, complete with anti-vibration mounting to limit mechanical vibration, computer controlled gas and high voltage systems, and a waveform digitizing data acquisition system with support for up to 120 signal inputs.