Measurement of Nuclear Radiation with Semiconductor Detectors

CONTENTS -
MAIN NOTATIONS -
CONTENTS -

CHAPTER I. - INTERACTION OF THE NUCLEAR RADIATION WITH MATTER -
1.1. Interaction of heavy charged particles with matter -
1.2. Passage of electrons through matter -
1.3. Interaction processes of gamma and X-rays -
1.4. Interaction processes of neutrons -
1.5. Conclusions -

CHAPTER II. - FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES IN SEMICONDUCTORS AND METALS -
2.1. Schrödinger equation. The particle inside the potential well -
2.2. The hydrogen atom -
2.3. Theory of the periodic system of elements -
2.4. Electrons in crystals -
2.5. Effective mass -
2.6. Energy bands -
2.7. Statistical distributions -
2.8. Equilibrium density of charge carriers in semiconductors -
2.9. Transport phenomena -
2.10. Recombination phenomena -
2.11. P-N junction -
2.12. Phenomena at the metal-semiconductor interface -

CHAPTER III. - WORKING PRINCIPLES OF NUCLEAR RADIATION
SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS -
3.1. Charge-carrier injection. The mean energy for electron-hole pair production -
3.2. The drift of charge-carriers in the electric field. The shape of the
current and voltage pulse given by the collection of a single pair. -
3.3. Collection time of electron-hole pairs in a P-N abrupt junction -
3.4. Collection time of electron-hole pairs in coaxial Ge (Li) detectors -
3.5. Influence of SD equivalent circuit elements on the voltage and current pulse shape -
3.6. Collection of charge-carriers in real devices -
3.7. Collection of electric charges by diffusion from outside the depletion layer -
3.8. Detector noise -
3.9. Detector energy resolution -

CHAPTER IV - CHARACTERISTICS OF SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS -
4.1. Electrical characteristics -
4.2. Detection characteristics -
4.3. Effects of temperature, magnetic field and light on the semiconductor
detector characteristics -
4.4. Detector sensitivity to neutrons and gamma-rays -
4.5. Effects of radiation damage on detector characteristics -

CHAPTER V - SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTOR TYPES -
5.1. Methods for obtaining high electric fields in semiconductors -
5.2. Homogeneous semiconductor detectors -
5.3. Diffused N-P junction detectors -
5.4. Surface-barrier detectors -
5.5. Guard-ring detectors -
5.6. Totally depleted detectors -
5.7. Neutron detectors -
5.8. Special detectors -
5.9. NIP detectors -

CHAPTER VI - AMPLIFICATION OF SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTOR ELECTRIC PULSES -
6.1. Electric charge to voltage pulse conversion -
6.2. Charge-sensitive-preamplifier-noise specification and measurement -
6.S. Amplifier-noise sources -
6.4. Effects of amplifier shaping circuits on noise spectra -
6.5. RC-RC amplifier signal to noise ratio -

CHAPTER VII - SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTOR ASSOCIATED ELECTRONICS -
7.1. Spectrometers with semiconductor detectors -
7.2. Charge sensitive preamplifiers -
7.3. Main amplifier -
7.4. Amplitude analyser and expander -
7.5. High amplitude stability pulse generator -
7.6. Transistorized apparatus -

APPENDIX A I: Basic properties of Si and Ge -
APPENDIX A II: Main natural and artificial alpha sources -
APPENDIX A III: Analysis of some circuits used in charge sensitive
preamplifiers -

REFERENCES -