No Arabic abstract
An improved method of energy calibration of position-sensitive silicon detector is presented. Instead of the parabolic function used in traditional method, a new function describing the relation of position and energy is introduced and achieves better energy resolution. For the 8.088 MeV alpha decay of 213Rn calibrated by this new method, the energy resolution is determined to be about 87 keV (FWHM), which is better than the result of the traditional method, 104 keV (FWHM). In addition, different functions can be tried in the new method, which makes the calibration of various detectors with different performances possible.
In this work, two particular properties of the position-sensitive, thick silicon detectors (known as the E detectors) in the High Resolution Array (HiRA) are investigated: the thickness of the dead layer on the front of the detector, and the overall thickness of the detector itself. The dead layer thickness for each E detector in HiRA is extracted using a measurement of alpha particles emitted from a $^{212}$Pb pin source placed close to the detector surface. This procedure also allows for energy calibrations of the E detectors, which are otherwise inaccessible for alpha source calibration as each one is sandwiched between two other detectors. The E detector thickness is obtained from a combination of elastically scattered protons and an energy-loss calculation method. Results from these analyses agree with values provided by the manufacturer.
We are developing position sensitive silicon detectors (PSDs) which have an electrode at each of four corners so that incident position of a charged particle can be obtained with signal from the electrodes. It is expected that the position resolution of the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) of the ILD detector will be improved by introducing PSDs to detection layers. We have been developing the PSDs for several years. In the previous production we found that the charge separation is not optimally done due to the readout impedance. To solve the issue, we produced new PSDs with higher surface resistance with an additional resistive layer on the surface. We also implemented several techniques to decrease position distortion and increase signal-to-noise ratio which are essential for the optimal position resolution. The measurements on the prototype sensors are ongoing, including radiation source measurement and laser measurement using an ASIC for silicon pad detectors.
We report the development of a fast position-sensitive laser beam detector with a bandwidth that exceeds currently available detectors. The detector uses a fiber-optic bundle that spatially splits the incident beam, followed by a fast balanced photo-detector. The detector is applied to the study of Brownian motion of particles on fast time scales with 1 Angstrom spatial resolution. Future applications include the study of molecule motors, protein folding, as well as cellular processes.
We have developed a position response calibration method for a micro-channel plate (MCP) detector with a delay-line anode position readout scheme. Using an {em in situ} calibration mask, an accuracy of 8~$mu$m and a resolution of 85~$mu$m (FWHM) have been achieved for MeV-scale $alpha$ particles and ions with energies of $sim$10~keV. At this level of accuracy, the difference between the MCP position responses to high-energy $alpha$ particles and low-energy ions is significant. The improved performance of the MCP detector can find applications in many fields of AMO and nuclear physics. In our case, it helps reducing systematic uncertainties in a high-precision nuclear $beta$-decay experiment.
The need for precise characterization of dual-phase xenon detectors has grown as the technology has matured into a state of high efficacy for rare event searches. The Michigan Xenon detector was constructed to study the microphysics of particle interactions in liquid xenon across a large energy range in an effort to probe aspects of radiation detection in liquid xenon. We report the design and performance of a small 3D position sensitive dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber with high light yield ($L_y^{122}=15.2 $pe/keV at zero field), long electron lifetime ($tau > 200 mu$s), and excellent energy resolution ($sigma/E = 1%$ for 1,333 keV gamma rays in a drift field of 200 V/cm). Liquid xenon time projection chambers with such high energy resolution may find applications not only in dark matter direct detection searches, but also in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments and other applications.