Nuclear emulsion
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A nuclear emulsion plate is a photographic plate with a particularly thick emulsion layer and with a very uniform grain size. Nuclear emulsions can be used to record and investigate fast charged particles like nucleons or mesons. After exposing and developing the plate, single particle tracks can be observed and measured using a microscope.
In 1937, Marietta Blau and Hertha Wambacher discovered nuclear disintegration stars due to spallation in nuclear emulsions that had been exposed to cosmic radiation at a height of 2300 m (7500 feet) above sea level.
Using nuclear emulsions exposed on high mountains, Cecil Frank Powell and coworkers discovered the pion in 1947.
[edit] References
- J. Thewlis (ed.), Encyclopedic Dictionary of Physics, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1962
- Robert Rosner, Brigitte Strohmaier (ed.): Marietta Blau, Stars of Disintegration. A biography of a pioneer of modern particle physics. Böhlau, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3205-77088-9 (in German)
