V. O’Shea

Charge sharing in silicon pixel detectors

We used a pixellated hybrid silicon X-ray detector to study the effect of the sharing of generated charge between neighbouring pixels over a range of incident X-ray energies, 13–36 keV. The system is a room temperature, energy resolving detector with a Gaussian FWHM of 265 eV at 5.9 keV. Each pixel is 300 μm square, 300 μm deep and is bump bonded to matching read out electronics. The modelling packages MEDICI and MCNP were used to model the complete X-ray interaction and the subsequent charge transport. Using this software a model is developed which reproduces well the experimental results. The simulations are then altered to explore smaller pixel sizes and different X-ray energies. Charge sharing was observed experimentally to be 2% at 13 keV rising to 4.5% at 36 keV, for an energy threshold of 4 keV. The models predict that up to 50% of charge may be lost to the neighbouring pixels, for an X-ray energy of 36 keV, when the pixel size is reduced to 55 μm.

Pixelated detectors and improved efficiency for magnetic imaging in STEM differential phase contrast

The application of differential phase contrast imaging to the study of polycrystalline magnetic thin films and nanostructures has been hampered by the strong diffraction contrast resulting from the granular structure of the materials. In this paper we demonstrate how a pixelated detector has been used to detect the bright field disk in aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and subsequent processing of the acquired data allows efficient enhancement of the magnetic contrast in the resulting images. Initial results from a charged coupled device (CCD) camera demonstrate the highly efficient nature of this improvement over previous methods. Further hardware development with the use of a direct radiation detector, the Medipix3, also shows the possibilities where the reduction in collection time is more than an order of magnitude compared to the CCD. We show that this allows subpixel measurement of the beam deflection due to the magnetic induction. While the detection and processing is data intensive we have demonstrated highly efficient DPC imaging whereby pixel by pixel interpretation of the induction variation is realised with great potential for nanomagnetic imaging.

The LCFIVertex package: vertexing, flavour tagging and vertex charge reconstruction with an ILC vertex detector

The precision measurements envisaged at the International Linear Collider (ILC) depend on excellent instrumentation and reconstruction software. The correct identification of heavy flavour jets, placing unprecedented requirements on the quality of the vertex detector, will be central for the ILC programme. This paper describes the LCFIVertex software, which provides tools for vertex finding and for identification of the flavour and charge of the leading hadron in heavy flavour jets. These tools are essential for the ongoing optimisation of the vertex detector design for linear colliders such as the ILC. The paper describes the algorithms implemented in the LCFIVertex package as well as the scope of the code and its performance for a typical vertex detector design.

THE NEW ALEPH SILICON VERTEX DETECTOR

The ALEPH collaboration, in view of the importance of effective vertex detection for the Higgs boson search at LEP 2, decided to upgrade the previous vertex detector. Main changes were an increased length (+/- 20 cm), a higher granularity for r phi view (50 mu m), a new preamplifier (MX7 rad hard chip), a polymide (upilex) fan-out on z side to carry the signals from the strips to the front-end electronics outside the fiducial region reducing consequently the passive material in the central region by a factor of two. The detector, the running experience and its performance will be described

A tuneable ultra-compact high-power, ultra-short pulsed, bright gamma-ray source based on bremsstrahlung radiation from laser-plasma accelerated electrons

The laser driven plasma wakefield accelerator is a very compact source of high energy electrons. When the quasi-monoenergetic beam from these accelerators passes through dense material, high energy bremsstrahlung photons are emitted in a collimated beam with high flux. We show how a source based on this emission process can produce more than 109 photons per pulse with a mean energy of 10 MeV. We present experimental results that show the feasibility of this method of producing high energy photons and compare the experimental results with GEANT4 Montecarlo simulations, which also give the scaling required to evaluate its suitability as method to produce radioisotopes via photo-nuclear reactions or for imaging applications.

Technology development of 3D detectors for medical imaging

Fabrication routes to realising ‘3D’ detectors in gallium arsenide have been investigated and their electrical characteristics measured. The geometry of the detector is hexagonal with a central anode surrounded by six cathode contacts. This geometry gives a uniform electric field with the maximum drift and depletion distance set by electrode spacings rather than detector thickness. The advantages of this structure include short collection distances, fast collection times and low depletion voltages depending on the electrode diameter and pitch chosen. These characteristics are fundamental for the application of 3D detectors in, for example, medical imaging and protein crystallography.

A front-end for silicon pixel detectors in ALICE and LHCb

A new front-end for a pixel detector readout chip was designed. A non-standard topology was used to achieve low noise and fast return to zero of the preamplifier to be immune to pile-up of subsequent input signals. This front-end has been implemented on a pixel detector readout chip developed in a commercial 0.25 μm CMOS technology for the ALICE and LHCb experiments. This technology proved to be radiation tolerant when special layout techniques are used, and provides sufficient density for these applications. The chip is a matrix of 32 columns each containing 256 readout cells. Each readout cell comprises this front-end and digital readout circuitry, and has a static power consumption of about 60 μW.

Applications of pixellated GaAs X-ray detectors in a synchrotron radiation beam

Hybrid semiconductor pixel detectors are being investigated as imaging devices for radiography and synchrotron radiation beam applications. Based on previous work in the CERN RD19 and the UK IMPACT collaborations, a photon counting GaAs pixel detector (PCD) has been used in an X-ray powder diffraction experiment. The device consists of a 200 μm thick SI-LEC GaAs detector patterned in a 64×64 array of 170 μm pitch square pixels, bump-bonded to readout electronics operating in single photon counting mode. Intensity peaks in the powder diffraction pattern of KNbO3 have been resolved and compared with results using the standard scintillator, and a PCD predecessor (the Ω3). The PCD shows improved speed, dynamic range, 2-D information and comparable spatial resolution to the standard scintillator based systems. It also overcomes the severe dead time limitations of the Ω3 by using a shutter based acquisition mode. A brief demonstration of the possibilities of the system for dental radiography and image processing are given, showing a marked reduction in patient dose and dead time compared with film.

Performance of a prototype RICH detector using hybrid photo-diodes

A prototype Ring-Imaging Cherenkov detector has been operated in a charged particle test beam. Cherenkov photons are imaged onto a plane of hybrid photo-diode detectors. The geometrical arrangement of the prototype and data-taking conditions are described. An analysis of the detector performance, using silica aerogel, air and C4F10 gas radiators, is presented. The photon yields and observed Cherenkov angle resolutions are found to be in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulation and satisfy the requirements of the RICH 1 detector in the LHCb experiment.

The simulation of charge sharing in semiconductor X-ray pixel detectors

Two simulation packages were used to model the sharing of charge, due to the scattering and diffusion of carriers, between adjacent pixel elements in semiconductors X-ray detectors. The X-ray interaction and the consequent multiple scattering was modelled with the aid of the Monte Carlo package, MCNP. The resultant deposited charge distribution was then used to create the charge cloud profile in the finite element semiconductor simulation code MEDICI. The analysis of the current pulses induced on pixel electrodes for varying photon energies was performed for a GaAs pixel detector. For a pixel pitch of 25 μm, the charge lost to a neighbouring pixel was observed to be constant, at 0.6%, through the energies simulated. Ultimately, a fundamental limit on the pixel element size for imaging and spectroscopic devices may be set due to these key physical principles.