Detection of muonic X-rays emitted upon muon transfer from hydrogen isotopes to heavier elements was used mainly for two purposes in our experiments. One was to detect arrivals of muonic hydrogen at a specific spatial position, while the other was to measure the level of impurities in the target layers. For the work of this thesis, the latter was the main use, and because of the anomalously long diffusing path length of muonic tritium in protium, the detection of the transfer X-rays provided a sensitive measure of impurities such as nitrogen and neon in the layer. Examples of the former use of muonic X-rays are given in Ref. [193,200,201].
Figure 3.24 shows the circuit for the germanium detector with a pair of plastic scintillators used for charged particle anti-coincidence. The detector was placed in a lead collimator to reduce neutron induced background [202].