Abstract
In the past 20 years the search for neutrinoless double beta decay has driven many developements in all kind of detector technology. A new branch in this field are highly-pixelated semiconductor detectors - such as the CdTe-Timepix detectors. It compromises a cadmium-telluride sensor of 14 mm x 14 mm x 1 mm size with an ASIC which has 256 x 256 pixel of 55 \textmu m pixel pitch and can be used to obtain either spectroscopic or timing information in every pixel. In regular operation it can provide a 2D projection of particle trajectories; however, three dimensional trajectories are desirable for neutrinoless double beta decay and other applications. In this paper we present a method to obtain such trajectories. The method was developed and tested with simulations that assume some minor modifications to the Timepix ASIC. Also, we were able to test the method experimentally and in the best case achieved a position resolution of about 90 \textmu m with electrons of 4.4 GeV.
Highlights
The main motivation behind the methods and experiments presented in this publication is to demonstrate the possibility of three dimensional (3D) particle trajectory reconstruction within the sensor of a hybrid active pixel detector for a neutrinoless double beta experiment. 3D tracking could help to achieve high sensitivities due to background rejection by particle identification
The neutrinoless double beta decay is a hypothetical, lepton-number violating decay where two neutrons in a nucleus are transformed into two protons and two electrons without anti-neutrino emission, e.g
This lepton-number violating decay is forbidden in the standard model of particle physics
Summary
The main motivation behind the methods and experiments presented in this publication is to demonstrate the possibility of three dimensional (3D) particle trajectory reconstruction within the sensor of a hybrid active pixel detector for a neutrinoless double beta experiment. 3D tracking could help to achieve high sensitivities due to background rejection by particle identification. The main motivation behind the methods and experiments presented in this publication is to demonstrate the possibility of three dimensional (3D) particle trajectory reconstruction within the sensor of a hybrid active pixel detector for a neutrinoless double beta experiment. Besides the direct evidence for lepton-number violation, the observation of neutrinoless double beta decay would have an immense impact on our understanding of particle physics [2]. The direction of origin of an impinging X-ray photo could be determined by reconstructing the track of the Compton scattered electron It could allow the usage for low activity tracers in SPECT imaging as the collimator, which absorbs most of the flux, could be avoided. The method could successfully be applied to experimental data obtained with a Timepix detector [5] and used for the reconstruction of electron tracks through the sensor layer.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call