High-energy-resolution passivated implanted planar silicon detectors

Abstract An alpha particle detector with high energy resolution is highly desired in the fundamental field of high-energy physics and various applications of environmental monitoring. In this paper, an excellent energy resolution of 0.35% for 5486 keV α-particles from 241Am with charge collection efficiency of 98.5% is achieved by a passivated implanted planar silicon detector with the window area of 530 mm². High energy resolution is attributed to high crystalline quality with long carrier lifetime, indicating less scattering of charges by defects and suppression of randomness of signal amplitude distribution. Enhanced energy resolution of radiation detectors will substantially reinforce the exploration within the realm of basic physics and augment the capabilities pertaining to biomedical drug development.