Some characteristics and applications of parallel plate avalanche detectors (a review)

Parallel plate avalanche detectors (PPADs) are new gas detectors and are being extensively used to detect heavy ions, fission fragments and minimum ionizing particles. Due to their excellent timing characteristics and low cost, they are being widely used in different areas of science and technology, particularly as start and stop detectors in different experiments. These detectors are ideal for coincidence measurements and for photofission studies. Different characteristics; construction operation, performance, time resolution, energy resolution and experimental techniques based on PPADs are reviewed in this paper. (author)