Development of a Hybrid Ionization Chamber/Double-Sided-Silicon-Strip Detector to be Installed at the DRAGON Laboratory at TRIUMF

Abstract

As of writing this thesis there are two detectors at TRIUMF’s DRAGON facility which directly measure the kinetic energy (E) of heavy ions at the focal plane of its recoil separator. These are an ionization chamber and a double-sided-silicon-strip detector (DSSSD). The ionization chamber has in- ferior resolution to the DSSSD but can discriminate isobaric contaminants in a E-∆E spectrum. A DSSSD has superior energy resolution and timing but cannot discriminate isobaric contaminants in many cases. A hybrid ioniza- tion chamber / double-sided-silicon-strip detector has been designed using the GEANT4 simulation package that combines the strengths of both these detec- tor types. This hybrid detector design consists of an ionization chamber set in front of a DSSSD positioned at the end of the beamline of the recoil separator. The design presented here is specific to DRAGON’s needs but can conceiv- ably be re-purposed in other environments requiring heavy ion detection and identification and may be useful in fields such as health physics.