Testing the efficiency of the Si3N4 membranes for charged particles registration

Testing Si3N4 membrane windows is a preliminary research for the single-ion-single-cell irradiating programme prepared at the Cracow nuclear microprobe facility. The present investigation is concerned with finding a method to register every single particle of the microprobe beam when passing through a membrane to the atmosphere. The 200 nm thick membranes covered with different layers were investigated. The alpha particles, after passing the membrane window, were registered by a particle detector. Secondary electrons ejected from the membrane by alpha particles were registered by a channeltron. The channeltron signals were collected in coincidence with the silicon detector signals. The detection efficiency is the ratio of the fast coincident channeltron signal number to the total number of the silicon detector signals. The results of investigation of the membranes with different coverages are reported in the present work.