A nuclear fragment detector for experiments with backscattered laser photons

A new fission fragment detector (FD) was designed and built for the experiments with backscattered laser photons at intermediate energies. The FD is based on low-pressure multiwire proportional chambers to detect the trajectories and energy losses of fission fragments and (ΔE-E) plastic scintillator modules to measure the energy of light charged particles such as protons, pions, etc. The results of calibrations with a spontaneous fission 252Cf source and first experiments on bremsstrahlung-induced photofission of 238U and 237Np nuclei at (Eγ)max=2 GeV are presented. (orig.)