1. Large-area Si(Li) Detectors for X-ray Spectrometry and Particle Tracking for the GAPS Experiment
- Author
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Massimo Manghisoni, S. McBride, Hideyuki Fuke, N. Saffold, Masayoshi Kozai, Steven E. Boggs, Lorenzo Fabris, Norman W. Madden, Alex Lowell, Gianluigi Zampa, Valerio Re, F. Rogers, Charles J. Hailey, E. Riceputi, Mengjiao Xiao, T. Erjavec, K. Perez, and Y. Shimizu
- Subjects
Antiparticle ,Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors ,silicon sensors ,Silicon ,Physics::Instrumentation and Detectors ,chemistry.chemical_element ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Tracking (particle physics) ,Settore ING-INF/01 - Elettronica ,01 natural sciences ,Optics ,0103 physical sciences ,Dark matter ,010306 general physics ,Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) ,Exotic atom ,Physics ,Annihilation ,Spectrometer ,010308 nuclear & particles physics ,business.industry ,Detector ,Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) ,Charged particle ,chemistry ,microelectronics ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,business - Abstract
© 2019 IEEE. Large-area lithium-drifted silicon (Si(Li)) detectors, operable 150°C above liquid nitrogen temperature, have been developed for the General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) balloon mission and will form the first such system to operate in space. These 10 cm-diameter, 2.5 mm-thick multi-strip detectors have been verified in the lab to provide < 4 keV FWHM energy resolution for X-rays as well as tracking capability for charged particles, while operating in conditions (~-40C and ~1 Pa) achievable on a long-duration balloon mission with a large detector payload. These characteristics enable the GAPS silicon tracker system to identify cosmic antinuclei via a novel technique based on exotic atom formation, de-excitation, and annihilation. Production and large-scale calibration of ~1000 detectors has begun for the first GAPS flight, scheduled for late 2021. The detectors developed for GAPS may also have other applications, for example in heavy nuclei identification.
- Published
- 2019
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