Efficient Charge Collection in Coplanar-Grid Radiation Detectors

Abstract

We have modeled laser-induced transient current waveforms in radiation coplanar grid detectors. Poisson's equation has been solved by finite element method and currents induced by photogenerated charge were obtained using Shockley-Ramo theorem. The spectral response on a radiation flux has been modeled by Monte-Carlo simulations. We show 10× improved spectral resolution of coplanar grid detector using differential signal sensing. We model the current waveform dependence on doping, depletion width, diffusion and detector shielding and their mutual dependence is discussed in terms of detector optimization. The numerical simulations are successfully compared to experimental data and further model simplifications are proposed. The space charge below electrodes and a non-homogeneous electric field on a coplanar grid anode are found to be the dominant contributions to laser-induced transient current waveforms.