Large-Scale Detector Testing for the GAPS Si(Li) Tracker
/ Authors
M. Xiao, A. Stoessl, B. Roach, C. Gerrity, Ian Bouche, G. Bridges, P. von Doetinchem, C. Hailey, D. Kraych, Anika Katt
and 10 more authors
M. Law, A. Lowell, E. Martinez, K. Perez, M. Reed, Chelsea Rodriguez, N. Saffold, C. Stringfield, H. Weiner, Kelsey Yee
/ Abstract
Lithium-drifted silicon [Si(Li)] has been used for decades as an ionizing radiation detector in nuclear, particle, and astrophysics experiments, though such detectors have frequently been limited to small sizes (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\text {few cm}^{2}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and cryogenic operating temperatures. The 10-cm-diameter Si(Li) detectors developed for the General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) balloon-borne dark matter experiment are novel particularly for their requirements of low cost, large sensitive area (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\sim 10 \text {m}^{2}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for the full 1440-detector array), high temperatures (near −40°C), and energy resolution below 4 keV full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) for 20–100-keV x-rays. Previous works have discussed the manufacturing, passivation, and small-scale testing of prototype GAPS Si(Li) detectors. Here, we show for the first time the results from the detailed characterization of over 1100 flight detectors, illustrating the consistent intrinsic low-noise performance of a large sample of GAPS detectors. This work demonstrates the feasibility of large-area and low-cost Si(Li) detector arrays for next-generation astrophysics and nuclear physics applications.
Journal: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science