On Sun, 14 Nov 2010 01:27:10 +0100 Magnus Danielson <[email protected]> wrote: > > Don't recall from the top of my head the effects of gamma-rays on > crystals, but I do recall there is effects there. However, I do > suspect they are rather poor gamma-ray detectors and loads of other > sources to hide any correlation from direct observation. > IIRC, Crystals usually are made up from silicon dioxide in a more or less pure crystalline form. I usually deal with more or less amorphuous silicon dioxide as in gate oxides, and i'm not sure whether or not this makes a difference. Anyways, gamma rays can produce electron-hole pairs in SiO2. And while electrons are fairly mobile (at least compared to the holes), this can depending on DC bias conditions lead to a net positive charge inside the crystal. This charge could be annealed though by applying high temperatures on the order of several hundred °C to the crystal. No idea what some electric field could do jitter-wise though. Might have to do with some sort of mechanical stress inside the crystal due to electric forces.
I think there are more mechanisms, but here i'm not sure. Am just learning about that stuff. But I would be willing to look it up at work ;-) HTH, Florian _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
