A liquid-helium cooled large-area silicon PIN photodiode x-ray detector

TL;DR

This paper reports on a liquid-helium cooled large-area silicon PIN photodiode x-ray detector with high energy resolution and low energy threshold, demonstrating its effectiveness as a cost-efficient large-area detector at cryogenic temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel liquid-helium cooled silicon PIN photodiode with optimized cooling and electronics, achieving high-resolution x-ray detection over a large area.

Findings

Achieved 1.60 keV energy resolution at 60 keV gamma rays

Energy threshold as low as 3 keV

Demonstrated effective large-area detection at 13 K

Abstract

An x-ray detector using a liquid-helium cooled large-area silicon PIN photodiode has been developed along with a tailor-made charge sensitive preamplifier whose first-stage JFET has been cooled. The operating temperature of the JFET has been varied separately and optimized. The x- and $\gamma$-ray energy spectra for an \nuc{241}{Am} source have been measured with the photodiode operated at 13 K. An energy resolution of 1.60 keV (FWHM) has been obtained for 60-keV $\gamma$ rays and 1.30 keV (FWHM) for the pulser. The energy threshold could be set as low as 3 keV. It has been shown that a silicon PIN photodiode serves as a low-cost excellent x-ray detector which covers large area at 13 K.