I have felt for some time that there should be a book that briefly ties together the most important topics in experimental particle physics. The biggest difficulty I have encountered in trying to do this is not that information concerning this subject is lacking, but rather that so much of it exists. Reports on experimental techniques and devices can be found scattered through specialized monographs, conference proceedings, data compilations, review papers, and journal articles. I have had to make enumerable, arbitrary selections in order to produce what I hope is a balanced overview of the subject in a book of reasonable length. I hope that the final product will be useful to graduate students and to others interested in an introduction to the subject and as a reference for practitioners in the field.

The first three chapters give an overview of the subject and discuss the electromagnetic and nuclear interactions of particles. A knowledge of particle interactions is necessary for an understanding of how detectors work, besides being interesting in their own right. The next three chapters are concerned with three nearly universal aspects of particle physics experiments: beams, targets, and fast electronics. Chapters 7 through 12 contain more detailed discussions of various types of detectors. Whenever possible I have attempted to enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of each detector and to specify the factors that limit its performance. The last three chapters are concerned with integrating detectors into a coherent system.