Application of stratified implantation for silicon micro-strip detectors

In the fabrication of a 48 mm×48 mm silicon micro-strip nuclear radiation detector with 96 strips on each side, a perfect P-N junction cannot be formed consistently by the one-step implantation process, and thus over 50% of strips produced do not meet application requirements. However, the method of stratified implantation not only avoids the P region between the surface of wafers and the P⁺ region, but also overcomes the shadow effect. With the help of the stratified implantation process, a perfect functional P-N junction can be formed, and over 95% of strips meet application requirements.     

Planar sulfur-doped silicon detectors for high-speed infrared thermography

Planar extrinsic sulfur-doped silicon detectors for infrared (IR) semiconductor-discharge gap image converters intended for use in high-speed thermography of remote objects have been developed. The detectors were fabricated by high-temperature diffusion of sulfur into silicon wafers from the vapor phase. The dependence of doping efficiency on the sulfur vapor pressure in the course of diffusion was analyzed. The detector fabrication technology was optimized to meet the specific requirements for their operation in the microdischarge devices considered. The detectors were tested in a laboratory setup comprising a blackbody source of IR light, an image converter, and a pulsed CCD camera for recording the converted images. The converter equipped with the detector can provide imaging of objects heated to a temperature, T_min ≈ 200 °C, with a temporal resolution on the order of 10^?6 s and spatial resolution of about 5 lines/mm.     

Study of the response of silicon detectors for alpha particles

Numerous radon measurements are carried out using silicon detectors directly in the environment. This new kind of alpha radiation measurement has been developed because the reduced cost makes it possible to replace the usual plastic track detectors. At our laboratory, an alpha particle detector has been designed from a commercial silicon photodiode. This type of detector can determine the device response perfectly in any kind of environment. Different spectrum analyses have been conducted in the laboratory and field to define the exact origin of counted alpha particles. We studied the response for different radon and thoron concentration levels and observed the energy of the detected alpha particles. We carried out some of these experiments with gas flux, and some without, to show the effects of interactions with surfaces to obtain thermodynamic equilibrium in the detection chamber. Finally, the silicon diodes that we tested measure the alpha particles of the decay products (polonium) from the radon and the thoron, but very weakly from the gases themselves. Thus, it is possible to make mistakes when measuring the radon if the count of alpha particles is performed without spectrum analysis. One reason for this is that the decay progenies of the radon are solid radio-elements with thermodynamic proprieties different from gases.     

Status of bubble detectors for high-energy heavy ions

Five types of bubble detectors (T-15, T-34, T-12, T-24 and T-14) of large volume and different sensitivities were developed in the China Institute of Atomic Energy for the purpose of heavy ion research. Calibrations were carried out with beams of high-energy protons, He, C, Si, Ar, Fe, Kr and Xe, at accelerators in the energy region 150–650 MeV/u. The bubble detectors were demonstrated to be a family of detectors for recording tracks of high-energy heavy ions with atomic numbers from Z=1 (proton) to all the numbers in the whole periodic table of elements. The threshold levels of the detectors differ from each other with values 0.05±0.01 (T-15), 1.62±0.05 (T-34), 1.68±0.03 (T-12), 2.24±0.06 (T-24) and 6.04±0.80 (T-14) MeVmg⁻¹ cm², respectively, which are about the same or even lower than the levels of plastic track detectors for recording heavy ions. The distinguishing features of bubble detectors are high sensitivity, active recording, real-time display, volume registration and background discriminating capacities. Bubble detectors are a new type of high sensitivity detectors and are very promising for detection of heavy ions, neutrons and exotic particles.     

Atomic spectroscopy with squeezed light for sensitivity beyond the vacuum-state limit

A frequency tunable source of squeezed light has been developed which is suitable for a variety of spectroscopic applications. In initial experiments continuous tunability over a range of 2 GHz has been achieved with a directly observed nonclassical noise reduction of 6 dB relative to the vacuum-state limit in a balanced homodyne detector. A process of light-induced absorption in the nonlinear crystal has been identified as the principal loss mechanism which prevents the observation of yet larger degrees of squeezing. Although our source is potentially broadly tunable over the range of wavelengths from 840 to 970 nm, the current research centers on the performance at 852 nm for spectroscopy of the D ₂ line of atomic cesium. For frequency-modulated (FM) saturation spectroscopy in a vapor cell, an improvement of 3.1 dB in sensitivity relative to the usual quantum limit is demonstrated for the detection of Doppler-free resonances. When corrected for the thermal noise of the detector, the enhancement in signal-to-noise ratio brought by the squeezed field is 3.8 dB relative to the shot-noise limit set by the vacuum fluctuations of the probe field.     

Beyond the classical Rayleigh limit with twisted light

It is shown that twisted stochastic light can serve as illumination that may produce images with a resolution overcoming the Rayleigh limit by an order of magnitude. This finding is illustrated for an isoplanatic axially symmetric system with low angular aperture and twisted scalar Gaussian Schell-model illumination.     

Measuring fluence of fast neutrons with planar silicon detectors

The results of measurements of 1-MeV (Si) equivalent fast neutron fluence with silicon planar detectors are reported. The measurement method is based on the linear dependence of the reverse detector current increment on the neutron fluence: ΔI = α _I × Φ × V. This technique provides an opportunity to measure the equivalent fluence in a wide dynamic range from 108 to 10¹⁶ cm^–2 with an unknown neutron energy spectrum and without detector calibration. The proposed method was used for monitoring in radiation resistance tests of different detector types at channel no. 3 of IBR-2 and for determining the fluence of fission and leakage neutrons at the KVINTA setup.     

Development of front-end readout electronics for silicon strip detectors

Front-end readout electronics have been developed for silicon strip detectors at our institute. In this system an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) ATHED is used to realize multi-channel energy and time measurements. The slow control of ASIC chips is achieved by parallel port and the timing control signals of ASIC chips are implemented with the CPLD. The data acquisition is carried out with a PXI-DAQ card. The software has a user-friendly GUI developed with LabWindows/CVI in the Windows XP operating system. The test results show that the energy resolution is about 1.14% for alpha at 5.48 MeV and the maximum channel crosstalk of the system is 4.60%. The performance of the system is very reliable and is suitable for nuclear physics experiments.     

Hohenberg-Kohn theorem for the lowest-energy resonance of unbound systems

We show that under well-defined conditions the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem (HKT) that provides the foundation of ground-state density functional theory (DFT) can be extended to the lowest-energy resonance of unbound electronic systems. The extended version of the HKT provides an adequate framework to carry out DFT calculations of negative electron affinities.     

Excess noise of the silicon surface barrier detectors

From our experiments the following conclusions follow:

Enhanced light extraction with silicon nanoantenna arrays for white light LED applications

High conversion efficiency and quantum efficiency is essential for the phosphor in an efficient phosphor-based white light LEDs. Here, based on the coherent harmonic and the random independent emitter model, we demonstrate theoretically that the silicon nanoantenna array can dramatically enhance the output power of emitters in a phosphor layer by investigating the far-field radiation enhancement of an electric dipole assisted by silicon nanopillars in a waveguide structure. Compared with the plasmonic silver nanoantenna array, the silicon nanoantenna array can increase the enhancement factor of light extraction efficiency (LEE) over 50% for the dipole source at the wavelength of 620 nm, thus showing potential applications in white light LEDs. The enhanced LEE is ascribed to the low-loss directional light scattering of silicon nanoantennas and the strong guided mode resonances caused by their array. The calculation results also indicate that the far-field radiation can be tailored significantly by changing the aspect ratio of silicon nanopillars while presenting a good directivity. Our research is expected to give more insights into the design and optimization of the solid-state lighting, gaining and lasing systems by integrating silicon-based nanoantennas.     

Method for determining the depleted zone thickness in silicon charged particle detectors

A method for determining the thickness of silicon charge particle detectors has been developed. The method is based on measurements of spectra from a standard ¹³⁷Cs γ source, whose shape changes with detector thickness. The method can be used in the thickness range ～50–6000 μm with an accuracy from 20 to 10%, respectively. No complex equipment or laborious calculations are needed.     

An improved method of energy calibration for position-sensitive silicon detectors

Energy calibration of resistive charge division-based position-sensitive silicon detectors is achieved by parabolic fitting in the traditional method, where the systematic variations of vertex and curvature of the parabola with energy must be considered. In this paper we extend the traditional method in order to correct the fitting function, simplify the procedure of calibration and improve the experimental data quality. Instead of a parabolic function as used in the traditional method, a new function describing the relation of position and energy is introduced.The energy resolution of the 8.088 Me V α decay of213 Rn is determined to be about 87 ke V(FWHM), which is better than the result of the traditional method, 104 ke V(FWHM). The improved method can be applied to the energy calibration of resistive charge division-based position-sensitive silicon detectors with various performances.     

Inequalities for light nuclei in the Wigner symmetry limit

Using effective field theory we derive inequalities for light nuclei in the Wigner symmetry limit. This is the limit where isospin and spin degrees of freedom can be interchanged. We prove that the energy of any three-nucleon state is bounded below by the average energy of the lowest two-nucleon and four-nucleon states. We show how this is modified by lowest-order terms breaking Wigner symmetry and prove general energy convexity results for SU(N). We also discuss the inclusion of Wigner-symmetric three- and four-nucleon force terms.