This plastic window proportional X-ray scintillation counter is similar to those flown on Aerobee sounding rockets in the mid-960's to early 1970's. (see A19880017000 for the collimator from this unit). Electrons in the atoms that make up the plastic are raised to excited states when acted upon by high energy photons. As those electrons go back to the original ground state the extra energy is dissipated as a flash of light in special plastics. Those flashes are then counted by means of a photocell. This in effect counts the strike of x-rays. This artifact is part of a collection of high energy detectors from the Naval Research Laboratory (see A19880001000-19880017000).
It was transferred to NASM in 1987 and is currently stored at the Garber facility.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.