Irradiating Sensors for 4D Tracking

Recent developments in the silicon sensor design and manufacturing are enabling an entirely new possibility: ‘4D’ tracking. This is the idea of tracking a particle in space and time, so that particle tracks, corresponding vertices, and time-of-flight can be precisely identified---a crucial component of any future collider. Scientists at ETP are collaborating with researchers in Torino, Perugia, and Trento to study one such sensor, the Resistive AC-coupled Silicon Detector (RSD). This sensor has specially doped layers to obtain precise temporal resolution and utilizes ‘charge sharing’ to maintain a precise spatial resolution.

A crucial aspect of developing such a sensor is to study how it changes as it is damaged by radiation. Radiation will cause the internal doping profiles to change, leading to macroscopic changes of the sensor which will significantly affect sensor performance. ETP post-doctoral researcher Brendan Regnery is leading the irradiation studies of RSD sensors, which will directly impact how future RSD sensors are developed and operated at experiments. Their first results from these irradiation studies are available as preprint.

Contact: Dr. Brendan Regnery