Study of charge sharing effect and energy resolution of the Timepix hybrid detector based on gallium arsenide compensated with chromium

Main Article Content

Lisan David Cabrera Gonzalez
Antonio Leyva Fabelo
Petr Smolyanskiy
Alexey Zhemchugov
Ernesto Alfonso Pita
Annie Meneses González

Abstract

Among the latest ionizing radiation detectors, those based on chromium compensated gallium arsenide (GaAs:Cr) are ones of the most competitive for many applications due to their high Z and strong resistance to radiation damage. They have been used in high energy physics research, medical visualization and spatial technologies, geological prospecting, among other advanced fields. The object of this work is a 900 µm GaAs:Cr detector with Timepix readout technology. Some detector characteristics for three experimental conditions were measured and studied by using the X-rays from a synchrotron and an X-ray tube provided with different materials for obtaining the corresponding fluorescence photons. A complex function was used to decompose the differential spectra into the most important contributions involved. As an additional tool for the research, the mathematical modeling of the mobility of charge carriers generated by radiation within the active volume of the detector was used. The results of these charge sharing effect studies showed a noticeable prevalence in the detector of this effect, changing its contribution according to the experiment characteristics. The detector was calibrated for the planned experiments and the energy resolution was determined. From the analysis of all the obtained results and their comparison with those reported in literature, it was confirmed that the detector has a marked charge-sharing effect between neighboring pixels, being its performance more impaired as the energy of incident photons increases.

Article Details

How to Cite
Cabrera Gonzalez, L. D., Leyva Fabelo, A., Smolyanskiy, P., Zhemchugov, A., Alfonso Pita, E., & Meneses González, A. (2019). Study of charge sharing effect and energy resolution of the Timepix hybrid detector based on gallium arsenide compensated with chromium. Nucleus, (64). Retrieved from http://nucleus.cubaenergia.cu/index.php/nucleus/article/view/661
Section
Ciencias Nucleares

References

[1] MEDIPIX. 2011. Available in: Available in: http://medipix.web.cern.ch/medipix/ [consulting date: may 8, 2016].
[2] POTRAP I, KOZHEVNIKOV D. Spectral microtomography using the MARS-CT. 2013. Available in: Available in: http://newuc.jinr.ru/img_sections/file/project/2014/MarsProject.pdf [consulting date: may 24, 2016].
[3] KNOLL GF. Radiation detection and measurement. Michigan: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000. Third Edition. ISBN: 978-0-470-13148-0.
[4] BRIESMEISTER JF. MCNP - a general Monte Carlo n-particle transport code. LA-13709-M. 2000. version 4C. Los Ángeles.
[5] MENESES A. Estudio mediante el método de Monte Carlo del transporte de fotones y del proceso de colección de cargas en detectores híbridos pixelados de GaAs:Cr. [bachelor thesis]. Higher Institute of Technology and Applied Sciences. Havana, 2015.
[6] MENESES A, LEYVA A, PINEIRA I, CRUZ CM, et. al. Spatial distribution of X and gamma rays induced energy deposition on semi-insulating GaAs:Cr based pixel radiation detector. Proceedings of X Workshop on Nuclear Physics and IX International Symposium on Nuclear and Related Techniques. 2015. vol. 654, no. 5, p. 208-212. ISBN: 978-959-300-069-7.
[7] NIST. 2015. Available in: Available in: http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/Star/Text/ESTAR.html [consulting date: may 23, 2016].
[8] SELLIER JMD, FONSECA JE, KLIMECK G. Archimedes, the free Monte Carlo simulator. Proceedings of the 15th International Workshop on Computational Electronics. doi: 10.1109/IWCE.2012.
[9] BUDKER INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS. The VEPP-3 electron-positron storage ring. 2016. Available in: Available in: http://v4.inp.nsk.su/vepp3/index.en.html [consulting date: jun, 5 2016].
[10] VAN DER BOOG RPM. Energy calibration procedure of a pixel detector. 2013. National Institute for Subatomic Physics [bachelor thesis of applied physics]. https://wiki.nikhef.nl/detector/pub/Main/ArticlesAndTalks/Energy_calibration_procedure.pdf
[11] NIST. 2015. Digital library of mathematical functions. Available in: Available in: http://dlmf.nist.gov/7.18 [consulting date: may 14, 2016].
[12] WEISSTEIN EW. Erfc. 2016. Available in:Available in:http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Erfc.html [consulting date: may 14, 2016].
[13] ARFAOUI S. Calibration, simulation and test-beam characterization of Timepix hybrid-pixel readout assemblies with ultra-thin sensors. International Workshop on Future Linear Collider. The University of Tokyo. 11-15 November 2013. CERN/PH-LCD.
[14] MCCONNELL M, MACRI JR, RYAN JM. Three-dimensional imaging performance of orthogonal coplanar CZT strip detector. SPIE's 45-th Annual Meeting. San Diego, 2000.
[15] BOLOTNIKOV AE, COOK WR, HARRISON FA. Charge loss between contacts of CdZnTe pixel detectors. NIM A. 1999; 432(7): 326-331. PII: S0168-9 002 (99)003 88-5.
[16] BRÖNNIMANN C, FLORIN S, LINDNER M, et. al. Synchrotron beam test with a photon-counting pixel detector. J. Synchrotron Rad. 2000; 429(7): 301-306.
[17] BUTLER AP, BUTLER PH, BELL ST, et. al. Measurement of the energy resolution and calibration of hybrid pixel detectors with GaAs:Cr sensor and Timepix readout chip. NIM A. 2015; 457(2): 234-256. doi: 10.1134/S1547477115010021.