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Title: Single electron–hole pair sensitive silicon detector with surface event discrimination

Journal Article · · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [5]
  1. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
  2. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
  3. Univ. of Montreal, QC (Canada)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here, we demonstrate single electron-hole pair resolution in a single-sided, contact-free 1 cm$^2$ by 1 mm thick Si crystal operated at 48 mK, with a baseline energy resolution of 3 eV. This crystal can be operated at voltages in excess of $$\pm50$$ V, resulting in a measured charge resolution of 0.06 electron-hole pairs. The high aluminum coverage ($$\sim$$70%) of this device allows for the discrimination of surface events and separation of events occurring near the center of the detector from those near the edge. We use this discrimination ability to show that dark events seen in previous detectors of a similar design are likely dominated by charge leakage along the side wall of the device. We saw only a small reduction in dark event rate with this biasing scheme, further suggesting that sidewall and edge-dominated processes are responsible for the majority of these events.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; PHY-1809730
OSTI ID:
1542181
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1776919
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1903.06517; FERMILAB-PUB-19-097-AE-E; oai:inspirehep.net:1725230
Journal Information:
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 963; ISSN 0168-9002
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (5)

Thermal detection of single e-h pairs in a biased silicon crystal detector journal January 2018
Gram-scale cryogenic calorimeters for rare-event searches journal July 2017
Results on MeV-scale dark matter from a gram-scale cryogenic calorimeter operated above ground: CRESST Collaboration journal September 2017
Calorimetric ionization detector
  • Luke, P. N.; Beeman, J.; Goulding, F. S.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 289, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-9002(90)91510-I
journal April 1990
Single-Electron and Single-Photon Sensitivity with a Silicon Skipper CCD journal September 2017

Figures / Tables (3)

Fig. 1(p. 1)figure Fig. 1
Fig. 2(p. 2)figure Fig. 2
Fig. 4(p. 4)figure Fig. 4

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