A silicon imaging calorimeter prototype for antimatter search in space: experimental results

Abstract

This report presents the results obtained with a prototype silicon-tungsten (Si-W) electromagnetic calorimeter, conceived as a fine-grained imaging device to carry out studies of the antimatter component in primary cosmic radiation. The calorimeter prototype contains 20 x, y sampling layers interleaved with 19 showering material planes. One sensitive layer is obtained with two silicon strip detectors (Si-D) (60 × 60) mm 2, each divided into 16 strips, 3.6 mm wide; the two detectors are assembled back to back with perpendicular strips. This allows the transverse distributions of the shower in both coordinates at each sampling (0.5 X 0) to be pictured. The basic characteristics of the design and the experimental results obtained on a test beam at the CERN proton synchrotron (PS) for electrons and pions are reported. The main results presented are the response of the calorimeter to the electron at various energies (1–7 GeV), and the transverse shower profiles at different calorimeter depths as well as the patterns of the electromagnetic shower and those of the interacting and non-interacting pions. The capability of the calorimeter in measuring the direction of the incoming electromagnetic particle from the pattern of the shower has been evaluated at different energies. These results are encouraging in view of the possible use of this detector to search for high-energy γ sources in space.