Position sensitivity of the proposed segmented germanium detectors for the DESPEC project

Abstract

The DESPEC HPGe array is a part of the NuSTAR project at FAIR, Germany. It is aimed at the spectroscopy of the stopped decaying exotic nuclei. Segmented γ -ray tracking detectors are proposed for this array in order to maximize detection efficiency and background suppression when searching for very rare events. Two types of detector modules—stacks of three 16-fold segmented planar crystals and 12- and 16-fold segmented clover detectors—have been investigated and compared from the point of view of the achievable position resolution using pulse shape analysis (PSA). To this end, detector signals from realistic γ -ray interactions have been calculated. These signals were treated by PSA in order to reconstruct the photon interaction locations. Comparing the initial interaction locations to the reconstructed ones, it was found that the double-sided strip planar detector yielded position reconstruction errors at least a factor 2 lower than the other detectors considered.