Development of alpha detector module based on large area PIN photodiode

Abstract

Two alpha detectors based on scintillator coated PIN PD were manufactured and investigated for 3.5 MeV alpha particles. ZnO(Ga) and CsI(Tl) scintillators were coated on the large area of 1 cm x 1 cm PIN type photodiode, respectively. After connecting them with a charge sensitive preamplifier, system noise, signal output, and signal speed were measured and analyzed. Although the system noise after scintillator coating was increased, especially large in ZnO(Ga) coating, alpha detection was possible for both detectors. The output signal was relatively large in the CsI(Tl) coated detector compared with the ZnO(Ga) coated detector. In detection time test, the ZnO(Ga) coated detector showed the performance of about 3 times faster than the CsI(Tl) coated detector.