Response of Semiconductor Detectors to Fission Fragments

Abstract

Measurements with a Cf²⁵² spontaneous fission source have shown that semiconductor detectors exhibit a pulse‐height defect for fission fragments, and that this defect is greater for the low‐energy, heavy‐mass group than for the high‐energy, light‐mass group. It has also been shown that the defect decreases with increasing bias voltage or average electric field strength within the depletion region. However, for a given electric field strength, the defect was found to be approximately independent of the type and resistivity of the detector. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the pulse‐height defect arises from an inability to collect all of the hole‐electron pairs in the dense plasma produced by an energetic fission fragment.