Plasma effect in Silicon Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs)

Plasma effect is observed in CCDs exposed to heavy ionizing alpha-particles with energies in the range 0.5 - 5.5 MeV. The results obtained for the size of the charge clusters reconstructed on the CCD pixels agrees with previous measurements in the high energy region (>3.5 MeV). The measurements were extended to lower energies using alpha-particles produced by (n,alpha) reactions of neutrons in a Boron-10 target. The effective linear charge density for the plasma column is measured as a function of energy. The results demonstrate the potential for high position resolution in the reconstruction of alpha particles, which opens an interesting possibility for using these detectors in neutron imaging applications.