| It is imperative that if a clean measurement is to be made of the Charged Current (CC) to Neutral Current (NC) ratio and the CC spectral distortion in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, the low energy background must be very well understood. For this reason a technique has been developed, so that each isotope of the background in the D2O can be measured. The technique relies on a proportional counter (PCS), which acts both as a detector as well as a source. If various sources such as 228Th are placed on the anode of the proportional counter, the beta-decay is tagged by the PCS and the Čerenkov radiation that is produced is detected by SNO. The method aims to make a background and distortion free measurement of the SNO detector response to a 228Th source. This thesis discusses the construction, development, testing, quality control and assurance, deployment and analysis of the PCS. |
