Characterisation of a silicon drift detector for high-resolution electron spectroscopy

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2020.164474
• Publication Date: 2020-07-29T01:07:11Z
• Authors: Matteo Gugiatti; Matteo Biassoni; Marco Carminati; Oliviero Cremonesi; Carlo Fiorini; Pietro King; Peter Lechner; Susanne Mertens; Lorenzo Pagnanini; Maura Pavan; Stefano Pozzi
• Keywords: Silicon drift detector; Semiconductor detector

Silicon Drift Detectors, widely employed in high-resolution and high-rate X-ray applications, are considered here with interest also for electron detection. The accurate measurement of the tritium beta decay is the core of the TRISTAN (TRitium Investigation on STerile to Active Neutrino mixing) project. This work presents the characterization of a single-pixel SDD detector with a mono-energetic electron beam obtained from a Scanning Electron Microscope. The suitability of the SDD to detect electrons, in the energy range spanning from few keV to tens of keV, is demonstrated. Experimental measurements reveal a strong effect of the detector's entrance window structure on the observed energy response. A detailed detector model is therefore necessary to reconstruct the spectrum of an unknown beta-decay source.