High Radiation Hardness Research Articles

Design of beam profile monitor used at the Xi'an proton application facility (XiPAF)

A pixel ionization chamber for beam profile monitor (BPrM) is designed and manufactured by a new technology. The detector will be installed on the beam line just upstream of the target device of XiPAF. It has many advantages such as high resolution, high radiation hardness and it can work as a real-time monitor to show the distribution of the delivered relative dose. The physics design and construction of the detector are described in this paper, and its performances are tested offline.

Optoelectronic Diamond: Growth, Properties, and Photodetection Applications

AbstractDeep ultraviolet photodetectors have attracted much attention due to their wide applications in the industrial, military, biological and environmental fields. Diamond has a variety of unique characteristics, including a wide bandgap, high thermal conductivity, high breakdown voltage, high carrier mobility, and high radiation hardness, which make it a promising candidate for deep ultraviolet photodetection. With the development of diamond synthesis technology, diamond‐based photodetectors have been extensively studied. This study reviews the recent progress involving various types of diamond‐based photodetectors, including photoconductors, metal–semiconductor–metal photodiodes, Schottky barrier photodiodes, p–n, and p–i–n photodiodes, heterojunctions, and phototransistors.

Design and performance of an electromagnetic calorimeter for a FCC-hh experiment

The physics reach and feasibility of the Future Circular Collider are currently under investigation. The goal is to collide protons with centre-of-mass energies up to 100 TeV, extending the research carried out at the current HEP facilities. The detectors designed for the FCC experiments need to tackle harsh conditions of the unprecedented collision energy and luminosity. The baseline technology for the calorimeter system of the FCC-hh detector is described. The electromagnetic calorimeter in the barrel, as well as the electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters in the endcaps and the forward regions, are based on the liquid argon as active material. The detector layout in the barrel region combines the concept of a high granularity calorimeter with precise energy measurements. The calorimeters have to meet the requirements of high radiation hardness and must be able to deal with a very high number of collisions per bunch crossings (pile-up). A very good energy and angular resolution for a wide range of electrons' and photons' momentum is needed in order to meet the demands based on the physics benchmarks. First results of the performance studies with the new liquid argon calorimeter are presented, meeting the energy resolution goal.

A large area diamond-based beam tagging hodoscope for ion therapy monitoring

The MoniDiam project is part of the French national collaboration CLaRyS (Contrôle en Ligne de l’hAdronthérapie par RaYonnements Secondaires) for on-line monitoring of hadron therapy. It relies on the imaging of nuclear reaction products that is related to the ion range. The goal here is to provide large area beam detectors with a high detection efficiency for carbon or proton beams giving time and position measurement at 100 MHz count rates (beam tagging hodoscope). High radiation hardness and intrinsic electronic properties make diamonds reliable and very fast detectors with a good signal to noise ratio. Commercial Chemical Vapor Deposited (CVD) poly-crystalline, heteroepitaxial and monocrystalline diamonds were studied. Their applicability as a particle detector was investigated using α and β radioactive sources, 95 MeV/u carbon ion beams at GANIL and 8.5 keV X-ray photon bunches from ESRF. This facility offers the unique capability of providing a focused (~1 μm) beam in bunches of 100 ps duration, with an almost uniform energy deposition in the irradiated detector volume, therefore mimicking the interaction of single ions. A signal rise time resolution ranging from 20 to 90 ps rms and an energy resolution of 7 to 9% were measured using diamonds with aluminum disk shaped surface metallization. This enabled us to conclude that polycrystalline CVD diamond detectors are good candidates for our beam tagging hodoscope development. Recently, double-side stripped metallized diamonds were tested using the XBIC (X Rays Beam Induced Current) set-up of the ID21 beamline at ESRF which permits us to evaluate the capability of diamond to be used as position sensitive detector. The final detector will consist in a mosaic arrangement of double-side stripped diamond sensors read out by a dedicated fast-integrated electronics of several hundreds of channels.

Proton Irradiation Effects on AlGaN/GaN HEMTs With Different Isolation Methods

We evaluated the electrical characteristics of two different AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) for the 5-MeV proton irradiation effects. The difference of the HEMTs originates from the isolation methods, such as mesa etching and nitrogen ion implantation. At a proton fluence of $1 \times 10^{14}$ p/cm2, the saturation drain currents of two devices are reduced by 50% and 11% for the mesa etching and the nitrogen ion implantation, respectively. The displacement damages are believed to degrade the electrical characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with nitrogen ion implantation isolation show relatively higher radiation hardness than those with mesa etching isolation. The reason is that plasma etching easily damages the surface of mesa sidewall and causes more defects by proton irradiation.

GEM detector performance with innovative micro-TPC readout in high magnetic field

Gas detector development is one of the pillars of the research in fundamental physics. Since several years, a new concept of detectors, called Micro Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD), allowed to overcome several problems related to other types of commonly used detectors, like drift chamber and micro strips detectors, reducing the rate of discharges and providing better radiation tolerance. Among the most used MPGDs are the Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs). Invented by Sauli in 1997, nowadays GEMs have become an important reality for particle detectors in high energy physics. Commonly deployed as fast timing detectors and triggers, their fast response, high rate capability and high radiation hardness make them also suitable as tracking detectors. The readout scheme is one of the most important features in tracking technology. Analog readout based on the calculation of the center of gravity technique allows to overcome the limit imposed by digital pads, whose spatial resolution is limited by the pitch dimensions. However, the presence of high external magnetic fields can distort the electronic cloud and affect the performance. The development of the micro-TPC reconstruction method brings GEM detectors into a new prospective, improving significantly the spatial resolutionin presence of high magnetic fields. This innovative technique allows to reconstruct the 3-dimensional particle position, as Time Projection Chamber, but within a drift gap of a few millimeters. In these report, the charge centroid and micro-TPC methods are described in details. We discuss the results of several test beams performed with planar chambers in magnetic field. These results are one of the first developments of micro-TPC technique for GEM detectors, which allows to reach unprecedented performance in a high magnetic field of 1 T.

Upgrade of the compact neutron spectrometer for high flux environments

In this paper new version of the 6Li-based neutron spectrometer for high flux environments is described. The new spectrometer was built with commercial single crystal Chemical Vapour Deposition diamonds of electronic grade. These crystals feature better charge collection as well as higher radiation hardness. New metal contacts approaching ohmic conditions were deposited on the diamonds suppressing build-up of space charge observed in the previous prototypes. New passive preamplification of the signal at detector side was implemented to improve its resolution. This preamplification is based on the RF transformer not sensitive to high neutron flux. The compact mechanical design allowed to reduce detector size to a tube of 1 cm diameter and 13 cm long. The spectrometer was tested in the thermal column of TRIGA reactor and at the DD neutron generator. The test results indicate an energy resolution of 300 keV (FWHM), reduced to 72 keV (RMS) excluding energy loss, and coincidence timing resolution of 160 ps (FWHM). The measured data are in agreement with Geant4 simulations except for larger energy loss tail presumably related to imperfections of metal contacts and glue expansion.

Influence of Radiation on the Properties and the Stability of Hybrid Perovskites.

Organic-inorganic perovskites are well suited for optoelectronic applications. In particular, perovskite single and perovskite tandem solar cells with silicon are close to their market entry. Despite their swift rise in efficiency to more than 21%, solar cell lifetimes are way below the needed 25 years. In fact, comparison of the time when the device performance has degraded to 80% of its initial value (T80 lifetime) of numerous solar cells throughout the literature reveals a strongly reduced stability under illumination. Herein, the various detrimental effects are discussed. Most notably, moisture- and heat-related degradation can be mitigated easily by now. Recently, however, several photoinduced degradation mechanisms have been observed. Under illumination, mixed perovskites tend to phase segregate, while, further, oxygen catalyzes deprotonation of the organic cations. Additionally, during illumination photogenerated charge can be trapped in the NH antibonding orbitals causing dissociation of the organic cation. On the other hand, organic-inorganic perovskites exhibit a high radiation hardness that is superior to crystalline silicon. Here, the proposed degradation mechanisms reported in the literature are thoroughly reviewed and the microscopic mechanisms and their implications for solar cells are discussed.

Development and Test of a Diamond-Based Fast Neutron Detector for 200 °C Operation

Recent improvements in the production of artificial single-crystal diamonds have made it possible to produce commercial radiation detectors. However, the availability of diamond detectors for high-temperature and high-shock applications is limited. We have developed a compact solid-state diamond detector for high-temperature applications which require compact size, stable performance, and extreme ruggedness. It is used as a fast neutron detector for monitoring the output of a pulsed neutron generator in oil well-logging tools. The sensor consists of a high-purity monocrystalline diamond wafer with metallized electrodes on both faces. One of the metallized surfaces is mounted on a metallic plate resting on a ceramic substrate. The metallized diamond assembly is mounted in a TO-257 metal housing, which has pins connected to the two electrodes on the two faces of the diamond. The detector package, consisting of the diamond sensor and the electronics assembly, has been qualified for operation in the harsh downhole environment of oil fields. This includes high temperature and repeated shocks and vibration. Units have been tested for up to 150 h at 200 °C with no degradation in signal or count rate accuracy. The count rate accuracy with a simple detection threshold regulation scheme can reach ±1% over the range from 25 °C to 200 °C. However, this detector has applications beyond well logging, wherever there is a need for a compact, reliable detector for fast neutrons in an environment where ruggedness, exposure to high temperature, compactness, and radiation hardness are essential.

The development of thin-film photovoltaic applications based structures on cuinse2 within the triple helix model

This work concentrates on the rewiew of the study of the photoelectrical phenomena of thin films for solar cells and also show the search of a new physical effects, which may be the basis for the development of new technologies, diagnostic methods, new types of photoconverters, and devices on these multinary semiconductors. Solar cells which based on silicon or binary III–V semiconductor compounds and their solid solutions successfully fulfilled their role as the first energy sources in outer space in the 1950s–1990s. Since 1997, technological development has been carried out for amorphous Si, CdTe thin film polycristal and CuInSe2 (CIS) solar cells in the thin film solar cell family. Thin film solar cells based on CuInSe2 and the related materials heretofore have been studied only for the aims of creating efficiencies. Complex physical and technological studies of the thin film solar cells on the basis chalcogenide chalcopyrite materials have made it possible to create devices with high radiation hardness and efficiencies as high as 18% [1-4]. At the same time, basic studies aimed to speed up film deposition is conducted from the aspect of material and substrate technologies for further cost reductions. For CIS solar cells research and development efforts continue to establish both element technologies necessary for the improvement in product quality and efficiency and large-area film fabrication technologies as essential part of the solar cell production process. This study was supported by the contract “Research and Development of Deposition System for CIGS Solar Cell” signed by the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute (Russian Academy of Sciences).

Space Solar Cells – 3G30 and Next Generation Radiation Hard Products

The 3G30-Advanced, AZUR SPACE’s latest qualified solar cell product, provides highest end-of-life efficiencies in space. The cell reaches 27.8% at a fluence of 5 E14 cm−2 and 26.5% at a fluence of 1 E15 cm−2 1 MeV electrons.The cell mass can be reduced to a minimum by substrate thinning, the cell cost can be reduced by implementation of large area configurations and even higher radiation hardness can be achieved by using AZUR’s proprietary 3G30-1E16+ design. Various configurations are currently in production.The increasing demand for cells suited for LEO applications, made AZUR to develop a novel upright metamorphic triple junction solar cell with a BOL efficiency of 31% designed for a fluence of 1 E14 cm−2 1 MeV electrons. This cell design is already in production.AZUR’s next generation product 4G32 comprises an upright metamorphic 4-junction device with 28.5% EOL (1 E15 cm−2 1 MeV electrons) efficiency. Hence, the 4G32 even surpasses the EOL efficiency of the lattice-matched 3-junction cell 3G30-Advanced. It utilizes the excess current of the Ge subcell by a metamorphic cell concept and a fourth junction added to the stack. This cell will be qualified by mid-2017.This paper summarizes the results and achievements for various 3G and 4G solar cell products from AZUR SPACE, including radiation hardness and cell formats.

High Gamma Ray Tolerance for 4H-SiC Bipolar Circuits

A high gamma radiation hardness of 4H-SiC circuits is performed. The OR NOR circuits are based on emitter coupled logic (ECL), using integrated bipolar NPN transistors. Gain degradation in individual bipolar junction transistors (BJT) is minimal up to a dose of 38 Mrad (SiO2), but for the dose of 332 Mrad (SiO2) a degradation of 52% is observed. The SiC BJTs show higher radiation hardness than existing Si-technology and high stability under temperature stress. It is proposed that the oxide charge-dominated recombination is the key base current recombination mechanism contributing to gain degradation. An improvement in the gain is seen after annealing at 400 °C for 1800 s due to the possible annealing of some of the oxide defects contributing to the oxide charge.

Radiation-Hardened Fiber Bragg Grating Based Sensors for Harsh Environments

Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) based sensors are nowadays used for several applications, but, even if they present advantages for their incorporation into radiation environments, commercial-off-the-shelf devices cannot still be used in harsh conditions. We recently reported a procedure for fabricating FBGs resistant to severe constraints combining both high radiation doses up to MGy levels and operation temperatures exceeding 200°C (RadHard FBGs). Following these results, the European project HOBAN was granted by Kic InnoEnergy with the aim of developing and marketing FBG-based temperature and strain monitoring systems suitable for harsh nuclear environments (350°C temperature and MGy dose levels), with their associated instrumentation devices. In this framework, we present an accurate study about the robustness of the radiation-response of these RadHard FBGs against the main grating inscription parameters. Up to the accumulated X-ray dose of 1 MGy(SiO2), no significant radiation induced Bragg wavelength shift is observed meaning that radiations induce errors below ± 0.4°C in the temperature estimation. Moreover, a study about the dose-rate dependence (1 to 50 Gy/s) of the gratings response is also reported and confirms the high radiation hardness of our RadHard FBGs at all dose rates.

SiC detectors for radiation sources characterization and fast plasma diagnostic

Semiconductor detectors based on SiC have been investigated to characterize the radiations (photons and particles) emitted from different sources, such as radioactive sources, electron guns, X-ray tubes and laser-generated plasmas. Detectors show high response velocity, low leakage current, high energy gap and high radiation hardness. Their high detection efficiency permits to use the detectors in spectroscopic mode and in time-of-flight (TOF) approach, generally employed to monitor low and high radiation fluxes, respectively. Using the laser start signal, they permit to study the properties of the generated plasma in vacuum by measuring accurately the particle velocity and energy using pulsed lasers at low and high intensities. Possible applications will be reported and discussed.

SiC detectors to monitor ionizing radiations emitted from nuclear events and plasmas

ABSTRACTSilicon Carbide (SiC) semiconductor detectors are increasingly employed in Nuclear Physics for their advantages with respect to traditional silicon (Si). Such detectors show an energy resolution, charge mobility, response velocity and detection efficiency similar to Si detectors. However, the higher band gap (3.26 eV), the lower leakage current (∼10 pA) maintained also at room temperature, the higher radiation hardness and the higher density with respect to Si represent some indisputable advantages characterizing such detectors. The devices can be employed at high temperatures, at high absorbed doses and in the case of high visible light intensities, for example, in plasma, for limited exposition times without damage. Generally SiC Schottky diodes are employed in reverse polarization with an active region depth of the order of 100 µm, purity below 1014 cm−3 and an active area lower than 1 cm2. Measurements in the regime of proportionality with the radiation energy released in the active region and measurements in time-of-flight configuration are employed for nuclear emission events produced at both low and high fluences. Alpha spectra demonstrated an energy resolution of about 1.3% at 5.8 MeV. Radiation emission from laser-generated plasma can be monitored in terms of detected photons, electrons and ions, using the laser pulse as a start signal and the radiation detection as a stop signal, enabling to measure the ion velocity by knowing the target-detector flight distance. SiC spectra acquired in the Messina University laboratories using radioactive ion sources and at the PALS laboratory facility in Prague (Czech Republic) are presented. A preliminary study of the use of SiC detectors, embedded in a water equivalent polymer, as a dosimeter is presented and discussed.

Characterisation of Silicon Diode Arrays for Dosimetry in External Beam Radiation Therapy

Modern stereotactic radiation therapy modalities utilize small beams and large dose gradients to deliver radiation in few fractions, reducing the possibility to correct for mistakes during the treatment process. Therefore, in order to ensure best possible treatment for the patient, quality assurance for such treatments necessitates a stable, linear, and sensitive radiation detector with high spatial resolution and radiation hardness. In this work, two silicon detector arrays with high spatial resolution have been characterized by 6 MV and 18 MV medical LINAC irradiation, and 5.5 MeV He2+ heavy ion microprobe. A maximum discrepancy of 0.6 mm in field size has been found when comparing to two-dimensional radiochromic film dose profile, and charge collection efficiency obtained by means of ion beam induced charge collection (IBICC) is 66% when operating the array in photovoltaic mode. Radiation damage study by photons and photoneutrons is presented.

Development of Large-Current Indirectly Cooled Radiation-Resistant Magnets

This paper reports developments of indirectly cooled radiation-resistant magnet coils, which can be loaded with 2000-A dc. This current capacity is required for the most upstream magnets of a new high-momentum beam line to be constructed in the future extension of the J-PARC hadron experimental facility. Indirectly cooled coils using solid-conductor-type mineral insulation cables (MICs) and stainless-steel water pipes were adopted to achieve high radiation hardness. MICs were sandwiched by independent cooling water pipes and stacked in a casing, and the entire coil assembly was filled with solder. However, the maximum load applied to the indirectly cooled MIC coils was limited to 1000-A dc, mainly owing to a heat problem at the end parts of the coils. In pursuit of the required current capability, we have carried out load tests using a test sample of the end parts, which consists of MIC current leads and a copper bus bar connecting the MIC conductors, instead of a whole MIC coil. By improving the structure of the end parts, we have succeeded to operate the test piece stably with 2000-A dc in a vacuum.

SiC detector damage and characterization for high intensity laser-plasma diagnostics

Silicon-Carbide (SiC) detectors are always more extensively employed as diagnostics in laser-generated plasma due to their remarkable properties such as their high band gap, high carrier velocity, high detection efficiency, high radiation resistance and low leakage current at room temperature. SiC detectors, in comparison with Si detectors, have the advantage of being insensitive to visible light, having low reverse current at high temperature and high radiation hardness. A similar energy resolution characterizes the two types of detectors, being 0.8% in Si and 1.0% in SiC, as measured detecting 5.8 MeV alpha particles. Generally, SiC detectors are employed as laser-plasma diagnostics in time-of-flight configuration, permitting the simultaneous detection of photons, electrons and ions based on discrimination of velocity. SiC detectors can be employed in the proportionality regime, because their response is proportional to the radiation energy deposited in the active layer. Using thin absorbers in front of the detectors makes it possible to have further information on the radiation nature, intensity and energy. Surface characterization of SiC before and after prolonged exposure to hot plasma laser generated shows the formation of bulk defects and thin film deposition on the detector surface limiting the device functionality.

Test beam results of a high granularity LuAG fibre calorimeter prototype

The progresses in the micropulling-down technique allow heavy scintillating crystals to be grown directly into a fibre geometry of variable shape, length and diameter. Examples of materials that can be grown with this technique are Lutetium Aluminum Garnets (LuAG, Lu3Al5O12) and Yttrium Aluminum Garnets (YAG, Y3Al5O12). Thanks to the flexibility of this approach, combined with the high density and good radiation hardness of the materials, such a technology represents a powerful tool for the development of future calorimeters. As an important proof of concept of the application of crystal fibres in future experiments, a small calorimeter prototype was built and tested on beam. A grooved brass absorber (dimensions 26cm×7cm×16cm) was instrumented with 64 LuAG fibres, 56 of which were doped with Cerium, while the remaining 8 were undoped. Each fibre was readout individually using 8 eightfold Silicon Photomultiplier arrays, thus providing a highly granular description of the shower development inside the module as well as good tracking capabilities. The module was tested at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility using electrons and pions in the 2–16 GeV energy range. The module performance as well as fibre characterization results from this beam test are presented.

Test beam results with a sampling calorimeter of cerium fluoride scintillating crystals and tungsten absorber plates for calorimetry at the HL-LHC

A sampling calorimeter using cerium fluoride scintillating crystals as active material, interleaved with absorber plates made of tungsten, and read out by wavelength-shifting fibres has been tested with high-energy electron beams at the CERN SPS H4 beam line, as well as with lower-energy beams at the INFN Frascati Beam Test Facility in Italy. Energy resolution studies revealed a low stochastic term (<10%/E). This result, combined with high radiation hardness of the material used, marks this sampling calorimeter as a good candidate for the detectors׳ forward regions during the high luminosity phase of LHC.