Extracting clean low-energy spectra from silicon strip detector telescopes around punch through energies

Abstract

The response of detector telescopes becomes complex around their relevant punch through energies: For some deposited energies the corresponding particle kinetic energies cannot be uniquely assigned, and these spurious energy regions can span several hundreds of keV if the telescopes are employed in close geometry. We present methods for producing clean low-energy spectra of light ions from detector telescopes consisting of thin double-sided silicon strip detectors (DSSSDs) backed by thick silicon pad detectors. By following these methods, the spectra of several such detector telescopes can be combined to span the entire relevant particle energy spectrum, above as well as below the punch through thresholds of the individual telescopes. The total energy spectrum resulting from the combination of all telescope spectra thus encompass the entire particle energy distribution in conjunction with the energy-dependent, setup-specific solid angle coverage. Energy spectra of beta-delayed proton emission from 21Mg are used to illustrate the methods.