Ultra-fast semiconductor sensors and associated instrumentation for radiation detection

• Grant number: 23/18486-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: June 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Marco Aurelio Lisboa Leite
• Grantee: Guilherme Tomio Saito
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/04867-2 - High energy physics and instrumentation with the LHC-CERN, AP.ESP

Abstract

The main drive for the larger LHC experiments future upgrades (HL-LHC) is the need to operate the detector systems in an environment where up to 200 simultaneous collisions per bunch crossing can occur, necessary to achieve an integrated luminosity of 4000 fb-1 in proton-proton collisions over the expected LHC lifetime. Both ATLAS and CMS will rely on timing information to preserve the track-vertex association performance and will deploy novel technologies in semiconductor sensors with picosecond timing resolution (Ultra-Fast Silicon Detectors- UFSD), capable of fine granularity, low power, tolerance to very high radiation doses and relatively low cost (as the experiments need to cover many tens of square meters with sensors). Through a very recent development in this area, silicon sensors with intrinsic multiplication mechanism (Low Gain Avalanche Detectors-LGAD) provide the answer to these requirements. Moreover, their characteristics make them very promising candidates for X-ray detection in low energy and very high-brilliance light sources, areas sharing many of the challenges addressed by the high energy physics area. (AU)