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Article
Thermal detection of single e-h pairs in a biased silicon crystal detector
Physics
  • R. K. Romani
  • P. L. Brink
  • Blas Cabrera
  • M. Cherry
  • T. Howarth
  • N. Kurinsky
  • R. A. Moffatt
  • R. Partiridge
  • F. Ponce
  • M. Pyle
  • A. Tomada
  • S. Yellin
  • J. J. Yen
  • Betty A. Young, Santa Clara University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-23-2018
Publisher
American Institute of Physics
Disciplines
Abstract

We demonstrate that individual electron-hole pairs are resolved in a 1 cm2 by 4 mm thick silicon crystal (0.93 g) operated at ∼35 mK. One side of the detector is patterned with two quasiparticle-trap-assisted electro-thermal-feedback transition edge sensor arrays held near ground potential. The other side contains a bias grid with 20% coverage. Bias potentials up to ±160 V were used in the work reported here. A fiber optic provides 650 nm (1.9 eV) photons that each produce an electron-hole (e– h+) pair in the crystal near the grid. The energy of the drifting charges is measured with a phonon sensor noise σ ∼0.09 e– h+ pair. The observed charge quantization is nearly identical for h+s or e–s transported across the crystal.

Comments

Copyright © 2018 American Institute of Physics Publishing. Reprinted with permission.

Citation Information
Romani, R. K., Brink, P. L., Cabrera, B., Cherry, M., Howarth, T., Kurinsky, N., Moffatt, R. A., Partridge, R., Ponce, F., Pyle, M., Tomada, A., Yellin, S., Yen, J. J., & Young, B. A. (2018). Thermal detection of single e-h pairs in a biased silicon crystal detector. Applied Physics Letters, 112(4), 043501. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5010699