Internal drift effects on the diffusion of Ag in CdTe

Anomalous diffusion profiles of Ag in single crystalline CdTe were observed using the radiotracer ¹¹¹Ag. The diffusion anneals were performed at 800 K under Cd or Te vapor and in vacuum with low Ag concentrations. The measured Ag profiles directly reflect the distribution of the self-interstitials and vacancies of the Cd sublattice and are the result of chemical self-diffusion which describes the variation of the deviation from stoichiometry of the binary crystal as a function of depth and time. It turned out that the spread of the Ag dopant essentially is determined by the drift of the charged defects within the electric field caused by the distribution of the extrinsic and intrinsic defects.     

Study of the dead layer in germanium for the CDMS detectors

We present new measurements on a Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) detector with electron, neutron, and gamma sources. The measurements have been performed to investigate the dead layer of one of the CDMS Z-dependent Ionization Phonon germanium detectors. The dead layer has been studied at both charge electrodes and at different electric field intensities. We also present a method to remove the dependence of athermal phonon measurements on event position.     

The antiproton depth-dose curve measured with alanine detectors

In this paper we report on the measurement of the antiproton depth-dose curve, with alanine detectors. The results are compared with simulations using the particle energy spectrum calculated by FLUKA, and using the track structure model of Hansen and Olsen for conversion of calculated dose into response. A good agreement is observed between the measured and calculated relative effectiveness although an underestimation of the measured values beyond the Bragg-peak remains unexplained. The model prediction of response of alanine towards heavy charged particles encourages future use of the alanine detectors for dosimetry of mixed radiation fields.     

The Fermi Large Area Telescope as a cosmic-ray electron detector

Successfully launched into a low-Earth orbit on June 11, 2008, the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) is a pair conversion telescope specifically designed to survey the gamma-ray sky with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. The broad list of exciting scientific results that the observatory has achieved in the first year of operation, though, is not limited to photon science, as it includes the first high-statistics measurement of the cosmic-ray electron spectrum for energies above 20 GeV. Here we thoroughly discuss the main aspects of the data analysis underlying this measurement and present the ongoing study aimed at lowering the energy threshold of the primary spectrum (measured by the LAT) as well as exploring the properties of the electron albedo population.     

Spectral analysis of the Crab Pulsar and Nebula with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The Crab Pulsar is a relatively young neutron star. The Pulsar is the central star in the Crab Nebula, a remnant of the supernova SN 1054, which was observed on Earth in the year 1054. The Crab Pulsar has been extensively observed in the gamma-ray energy band by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the main instrument onboard the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope, during its first months of data taking. The LAT data have been used to reconstruct the fluxes and the energy spectra of the pulsed gamma-ray component and of the gamma-rays from the Nebula. The results on the pulsed component are in good agreement with the previous measurement from EGRET, while the results on the Nebula are consistent with the observations from Earth based telescopes.     

Fermi gamma-ray space telescope: Science highlights for the first 8 months

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched on June 11, 2008 and since August 2008 has successfully been conducting routine science observations of high energy phenomena in the gamma-ray sky. A number of exciting discoveries have been made during its first year of operation, including blazar flares, high-energy gamma-ray bursts, and numerous new gamma-ray sources of different types, among them pulsars and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Fermi-LAT also performed accurate measurement of the diffuse gamma-radiation which clarifies the “GeV excess” reported by EGRET almost 10 years ago, high precision measurement of the high energy electron spectrum, and other observations. An overview of the observatory status and recent results as of April 30, 2009, are presented.     

Anode region design and focusing properties of STAR silicon drift detectors

Electron collection at the anodes of large-area silicon drift detectors was studied with STAR2 prototypes. Results of measurements of anode leakage currents, signal dependence on focusing voltages, anode uniformity, and model simulations are reported. A design of the anode region is presented. The design optimization is discussed.