A GaAs Detector for Dark Matter and Solar Neutrino Research

Bowles, T.J. ; Hime, A. ; Gavrin, V. ; Kozlova, Y. ; Veretenkin, E. ; Markov, A. V. ; Polyakov, A. J. ; Eremin, V. K. ; Verbitskaya, E. M.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

关键词: Radiation Detectors;    Crystal Growth;    46 Instrumentation Related To Nuclear Science And Technology;    Gamma Detection;    X-Ray Detection;   

DOI  :  10.2172/768779
RP-ID  :  LA-UR-00-3994
RP-ID  :  W-7405-ENG-36
RP-ID  :  768779

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来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

The ability to produce large GaAs crystals with the requisite electronic properties to be fabricated into charged particle and photon detectors would provide a detector medium that would find numerous applications in both applied and fundamental research. Various applications would likely include x-ray detectors on satellites, environmental monitoring, medical imaging, bore hole mining spectroscopy, searches for dark matter, and solar neutrino research. We have carried out the development of GaAs detectors using two commercial crystal growing techniques. We have shown it should be able to grow detectors with 20 cm{sup 2} area and a depletion depth of 1 mm. Detectors of this size would find immediate applications in high-resolution, room temperature, low energy gamma ray measurements. We have also arrived at an understanding of the limitations of the common techniques used to grow GaAs and have determined that it should be possible to produce larger detectors using proprietary methods.