The response and calibration of thin Si AE detectors

The response of thin (∼7 μm) self-supporting Si p-i-n ΔE detectors for light recoils (Z ≤ 8) has been characterised using a conventional Elastic Recoil Detection (ERD) set-up. In this study, the energy loss of each recoil in the ΔE detector was measured by determining the incident energy from the time of flight and the energy after traversing the ΔE detector using a thick (280 μm) Si p-i-n diode E detector. 40 MeV ³⁵Cl⁷⁺ ions were used to produce recoils of H, Li, Be, B, C, N and O. Correlation of the energy loss in the ΔE detector with the amplitude of the ΔE signals was used to assign calibration constants. Analysis of the variance of the signals from the trend line revealed that the standard deviation of the data perpendicular to the trend line which is not contributed to by energy straggling and multiple scattering, increases with increasing recoil atomic number.