Modeling Radiation Damage to Pixel Sensors in the ATLAS Detector

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new digitization model that incorporates radiation damage effects in ATLAS pixel sensors, validated with Run 2 data, to improve understanding of sensor performance under high radiation.

Contribution

It presents the first digitization model including radiation damage effects for ATLAS pixel sensors, enhancing simulation accuracy for high-radiation environments.

Findings

Model predicts pixel cluster properties under radiation damage.

Validation shows good agreement with Run 2 collision data.

Provides a tool for future detector upgrade simulations.

Abstract

Silicon pixel detectors are at the core of the current ATLAS detector and its planned upgrade. As the detectors in closest proximity to the interaction point, they will be exposed to a significant amount of radiation: prior to the HL-LHC, the innermost layers will receive a fluence in excess of $10^{15}$ 1 MeV $n_\mathrm{eq}/\mathrm{cm}^2$ and the HL-LHC detector upgrades must cope with an order of magnitude higher fluence integrated over their lifetimes. This talk presents a digitization model that includes radiation damage effects to the ATLAS Pixel sensors for the first time. After a thorough description of the setup, predictions for basic pixel cluster properties are presented alongside first validation studies with Run 2 collision data.