Ultra-Large Silicon Diode for Characterizing Low-Intensity Radiation Environments

We present applications of a large commercial silicon diode (50 cm ² x 500 um) for monitoring low-intensity radiation fields, together with benchmarks via Monte Carlo simulations. After the energy calibration with monoenergetic proton and alpha beams in the 2-8 MeV range, we show that the detector is capable of measuring atmospheric radiation at the ground level, not only in terms of a total number of events but also through their energy deposition distribution. Focusing on the atmospheric-like neutron spectrum, we prove that the diode detection cross-section is more than 5 orders of magnitude larger with respect to SRAM-based solutions, and highlight the potential use cases in the accelerator's radiation environment.