Study of avalanche photodiodes for soft X-ray detection below 20keV

Abstract: The performance of the large area reach-through avalanche photodiode (APD), manufactured by Hamamatsu Photonics, K.K. as a high resolution X-ray detector is presented. The mentioned APD has an area of 3mm , a fast time response for signal carrier collection and its thick depletion layer of shows a potential to be used as an effective X-ray absorber below 20keV. Having a capacitance of and a low dark current of 5nA for a gain of 15, at room temperature, this APD had demonstrated one of the best energy resolutions within this kind of devices: 6.4% (FWHM) for 5.9keV photons with a minimum detectable energy of 0.3keV, measured at . The experiments for the timing property were made in a synchrotron beam facility using an 8keV X-ray beam; the reached count rate was above counts/s, corresponding to a very short dead time of 4.5ns/pulse. In order to test the radiation hardness of the APD, the device was irradiated at a Ring Cyclotron Facility with a 53.5MeV proton beam. The total dose was of 11.3krad and no fatal damage was found in the APD, although the dark current of the APD had shown an increase of one order of magnitude. Finally, the obtained results allow us to affirm that the reach-through APD has the potential to become an excellent X-ray detector, especially in the space mission application. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]