# Track Restore Technique (RST) Applied to Analysis of Waveform of Voltage Pulse in SAGE Proportional Counters

## I Introduction

One of main procedures of solar neutrino flux measurement in gallium experiments is a detection of several atoms of <sup>71</sup>Ge in a small proportional counter. <sup>71</sup>Ge decays solely via electron capture to the ground state of <sup>71</sup>Ga. In the proportional counter 1.2 keV and 10.4 keV Auge-electrons are usually detected. These low-energy electrons produce a nearly point-like ionization in the counter gas. This ionization will arrive at the anode wire of the proportional counter as a unit resulting in a fast rise time for the pulse. In contrast, although a typical $`\beta `$-particle produced by a background process may also lose 1 keV to 15 keV in the counter gas, it will leave an extended trail of ionization. The ionization will arrive at the anode wire distributed in time according to its radial extent in the counter, which usually gives a pulse with a slower rise time than for a <sup>71</sup>Ge event. The identification of true <sup>71</sup>Ge events and the rejection of background events is thus greatly facilitated by using a two parameter analysis: a candidate <sup>71</sup>Ge event must not only fall within the appropriate energy region, but must also have a rise time consistent with point-like ionization.

The anode wire is directly connected to a charge-sensitive preamplifier. After further amplification the signal is going (in SAGE) to the digital oscilloscope HP5411D, which records the voltage pulse waveform with 8-bit voltage resolution and 1 ns time resolution for 800 ns after pulse onset. A typical pulse produced by 10.4 keV Auge-electron after <sup>71</sup>Ge decay is shown on Fig. 1.

## II Standard analysis of waveform

There are several different techniques which are applied to waveform analysis in both gallium solar neutrino experiments. All of them are described in detail elsewhere (see ,  for SAGE,  for GALLEX). For example, in the standard analysis of SAGE data so called $`T_N`$ method is used there. A functional form described in  with parameter $`T_N`$ characterizing rise time of the pulse is written for fit the observed pulse to. This technique gives the correct description of the shape of the voltage pulse as recorded by the digital oscilloscope when the ionization produced in the proportional counter consists of a set of point ionizations evenly distributed along a straight track. Since <sup>71</sup>Ge events are usually a single cluster of ionization, this method works satisfactorily to select <sup>71</sup>Ge candidate events. It is, however, restricted to the particular form of ionization that is assumed, and gives a poor fit to other types of charge deposit in the counter, such as the combination of a point event from <sup>71</sup>Ge $`K`$-electron capture followed by capture of the 9.3-keV x ray at some other location in the counter. To give us the capability to investigate all possible events that may occur in the counter, we have also developed a more general method which can analyze an event produced by ionization with an arbitrary distribution of charge. We call this the ‘restored pulse method’, or ‘RST method’ for short.

## III Description of RST technique

We begin with the measured voltage pulse $`V(t)`$ as recorded by the digitizer. For an ideal point charge that arrives at the counter anode wire, $`V(t)`$ has the Wilkinson form $`V(t)=W(t)=V_0\mathrm{ln}(1+t/t_0)`$, provided the counter is ideal and the pulse processing electronics has infinite bandwidth. For a real event from the counter, with unknown charge distribution, $`V(t)`$ can in general be expressed as the convolution of the Wilkinson function with a charge collection function $`G(t)`$:

$$V(t)=W(t)G(t).$$
(1)   
The function $`G(t)`$ contains within it the desired information about the arrival of charge at the counter anode, coupled with any deviations of the counter or electronics from ideal response. Equation (1) can be considered as the definition of $`G(t)`$.

To get the desired function $`G(t)`$, one must deconvolute Eq. (1). To perform this deconvolution, we have found it mathematically convenient to use the current pulse $`I(t)`$, which is obtained by numerical differentiation of $`V(t)`$:

$`I(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{dV}{dt}}={\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}(W(t)G(t))`$ (2)   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{dW}{dt}}G(t)=W^{^{}}(t)G(t),`$ (3)   
where $`W^{^{}}(t)`$ is normalized over the observed time of pulse measurement $`T_{\text{obs}}`$ such that $`_0^{T_{\text{obs}}}W^{^{}}(t)𝑑t=1`$.

To deconvolute, we Fourier transform to the frequency domain and then use the theorem that convolution in the time domain becomes multiplication in the frequency domain. This simply gives $`I(f)=W^{^{}}(f)G(f)`$, which can be solved for $`G(f)`$. We then Fourier transform $`G(f)`$ back to the time domain to get the desired function $`G(t)`$. The energy of the event is given by $`_0^{T_{\text{obs}}}G(t)𝑑t`$. The duration of the collection of ionization is given by the width of $`G(t)`$, which can be used as a measure of the rise time.

An example of this procedure as applied to a typical <sup>71</sup>Ge $`K`$-peak event is given in Fig. 2. This pulse has $`T_N=3.9`$ ns. The recorded voltage pulse after inversion and smoothing is given by $`V(T)`$ in the lower panel. The current pulse, obtained by numerical differentiation of the voltage pulse, is given by $`I(t)`$ in the upper panel. The deduced function $`G(t)`$ is also shown in the upper panel. It has a FWHM of about 15 ns, found to be typical for true <sup>71</sup>Ge $`K`$-peak events. The integrated current pulse, which records the pulse energy, is given by $`G(t)𝑑t`$ in the lower panel.

## IV Conclusion

This method has the advantage that it can reveal the basic nature of the ionization in the counter for an arbitrary pulse. It is also capable of determining the pulse energy over a wider range than the $`T_N`$ method. A problem that has been found with this method in practice, however, is that when <sup>71</sup>Ge data are analyzed one obtains multiple collection functions (i.e., $`G(t)`$ has several distinct peaks separated in time) more often than is expected from the known physical processes that take place in the counter. These multiple peaks are due to noise on the pulse and cutoff of the system frequency response at about 100 MHz. Attempts have been made to remove these extraneous peaks by filtering and smoothing the original pulse, but they have not been fully successful. Evidently we need faster electronics and a reduction in the noise level to be able to fully exploit this pulse shape analysis technique. As a result, we have only been able to use this method to select events on the basis of energy.

## V Acknowledgments

We thank many members of SAGE for fruitful and stimulating discussions. Especially we thank B. T. Cleveland for his help in careful preparation of the article.