Evaluating the performance of Low Gain Avalanche Detectors under high radiation doses

• Grant number: 24/20568-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Marco Aurelio Lisboa Leite
• Grantee: Gabriel Gonçalves Amaral Silva
• 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

Low Gain avalanche Detectors (LGAD) are novel devices developed primarily for providing timing information to the future ATLAS and CMS HL-LHC upgraded detectors. The main characteristics of these devices are very fast timing response (20~30ps resolution), radiation resistance and the possibility to be assembled as arrays of pixels (or pads). While being one of the most radiation hard devices attainable by current technology, the mechanism through which the damage occurs is still a matter of intense research and systematically measuring its performance at several irradiation doses can provide valuable insights on this mechanism. In this proposal, LGAD sensors of several geometries will be characterized (IV, CV response and analysis of the signal produced by charged particles and X-ray photons) targeting high and low energy applications. Irradiation campaigns using local facilities are being planned, aiming at the doses expected by the future HL-LHC timing detectors. Besides the electrical characterization,  the simulation of the response of these devices using the current frameworks employed by the LHC experiments will allow the investigation of the impact of the radiation dose in the timing and collected charge produced by the LGADs under the passage of ionizing radiation.