Single-electron counting

The single-electron counting approach provides a "zoom-in" view of the ionization process induced by radiation in the detector medium - a process which is stochastic in its nature. By counting individual ionization charges rather than integrating and multiplying them, we get a better insight to the primary ionization process, un-obscured by additional statistical fluctuations or by integration. Detector techniques for efficient single-electron counting were developed in our group for relativistic particle identification, single-electron nanodosimetry and soft-x-ray (100-700 eV) spectroscopy. It was applied by us for the measurements of Fano factors and Mean Ionization Energy for soft x-rays in various gases.