Calculational approach to ionization spectrometer design

Many factors contribute to the design and overall performance of an ionization spectrometer. These factors include the conditions under which the spectrometer is to be used, the required performance, the development of the hadronic and electromagnetic cascades, leakage and binding energies, saturation effects of densely ionizing particles, nonuniform light collection, sampling fluctuations, etc. The calculational procedures developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that have been applied to many spectrometer designs and that include many of the influencing factors in spectrometer design are discussed. The incident-particle types which can be considered with some generality are protons, neutrons, pions, muons, electrons, positrons, and gamma rays. Charged kaons can also be considered but with less generality. The incident-particle energy range can extend into the hundreds of GeV range. The calculations have been verified by comparison with experimental data but only up to approximately 30 GeV. Some comparisons with experimental data are discussed and presented so that the flexibility of the calculational methods can be demonstrated