Speaker
Description
The persistent drive for increased spatial resolution, faster timing performance, and enhanced radiation hardness in Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGDs) has motivated growing interest in nanostructured amplification concepts. In this study, we report a systematic experimental characterization of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO)-based nano-patterned gaseous detector architectures, fabricated with controlled variations of their geometrical parameters. Nine distinct AAO samples were investigated, combining three membrane thicknesses (50, 100, and 200 µm) with three pore diameters (200, 300, and 450 nm), thereby enabling a direct assessment of the dependence of avalanche formation and signal transport on the nano-channel geometry.
The AAO structures were incorporated into gas-filled detector assemblies and operated under uniform experimental conditions, employing X-ray irradiation and charge-sensitive readout electronics. For each configuration, we analyzed signal amplitude, pulse-shape evolution, gain characteristics, charge-collection efficiency, and signal stability as functions of pore diameter and membrane thickness. The measurements reveal a pronounced dependence of detector response on nano-channel geometry, indicating that both electron confinement and electric-field focusing within the nano-pores critically affect the avalanche multiplication process. Reduced pore diameters were found to strengthen field localization and mitigate transverse diffusion, while increased membrane thickness enhanced the effective multiplication path length and altered the overall charge-transport dynamics.
The comparative evaluation of the nine detector configurations demonstrates that the interplay between pore diameter and membrane thickness determines the operational regime, delineating the transition between stable gain and charge-loss-dominated behavior. Notably, several AAO-based structures exhibited substantially improved signal formation and signal-to-noise performance relative to expectations for sub-micrometer gaseous amplification systems. These results provide new insight into the scaling properties of nano-patterned gaseous detectors and identify AAO-based nano-GEM-like architectures as promising candidates for next-generation MPGD technologies. The findings suggest a viable route toward ultra-compact, high-granularity, and radiation-tolerant gaseous detectors for prospective applications in high-energy physics, synchrotron radiation instrumentation, medical imaging, and space radiation monitoring.
| Name of the speaker | Yalcin Kalkan |
|---|---|
| Eligible for the Georges Charpak Young Scientist Award. | no |