Speaker
Description
Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) are prime candidates for high-resolution timing applications in High Energy Physics, Nuclear science, and other fields. When used at hadron colliders, these sensors are required to withstand enormous amounts of radiation while maintaining acceptable performance. When particles interact with highly biased sensors in these high-radiation environments, this can produce irreversible damage to the sensors through a phenomenon known as Single Event Burnout (SEB).
SEB is one of the main limitations to the usage of silicon detectors in high-radiation environments, as it often results in the permanent destruction of the sensors. Recent studies conducted using minimum ionizing particles (MIPs) found that when LGADs are operated below a certain bias voltage threshold, the risk of SEB is greatly minimized. As LGADs would be exposed to a large energy range of radiation at hadron colliders, it is crucial to also understand this phenomenon, and the behavior of LGADs, at energy deposition levels greater than those of MIPs.
This was achieved by pre-irradiating 20, 30, and 50 μm LGADs and PiN diodes at the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center up to 1.5×$10^{15}$ $\frac{n_{eq}}{cm^{2}}$, and then exposing them to high intensity beams of protons and several species of heavy ions (C, O, Fe, Au) produced at the BNL Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. This talk describes the results of the irradiations, including a showcasing and categorization of the different observed mortality modes of the sensors for different energies and species of heavy ions. This study furthers our understanding of SEB and permanent radiation damage of LGADs in high-radiation environments, crucial towards developing techniques to mitigate this issue and safely operate LGADs at future detectors.
