PRIN 2022 - COD. 2022RK39RF - "A Compensated Design of Thin Silicon Sensors for Extreme Fluences" - Finanziamento dell’Unione Europea – NextGenerationEU – missione 4, componente 2, investimento 1.1.

Silicon sensors have been extensively exploited in high-energy physics experiments in the past 40 years, from their first use in NA11 at the SPS (CERN) to their application in the present-day design of very large particle trackers. The capability of silicon sensors to work in environments with high radiation levels has been of utmost importance for experiments at accelerating machines with very energetic and intense particle beams. Presently available silicon sensors can operate efficiently up to fluences of 1E16/cm2 while future frontier accelerators envisage the use of silicon sensors in environments with fluences exceeding 1E17/cm2. If not overcome, this gap will prevent the use of silicon sensors in future hadron-collider experiments. ComonSens aims at extending the silicon detector range of operation by more than one order of magnitude, up to fluences of 5E17/cm2. The idea behind this unprecedented target in radiation tolerance is driven by a novel understanding of the saturation effects of radiation damage together with three developments in sensor technology: (i) the use of thin active volumes (20–40 um), intrinsically less affected by radiation damage than thicker sensors, (ii) the presence of internal gain (5–10), to boost the low signals generated in thin active volumes, and (iii) a new design of the implant responsible for signal multiplication, engineering a well-calibrated compensation of p and n dopants to extend the multiplication capability above 1E17/cm2. The ComonSens project will focus its activity on this last point, the p–n compensated design, which represents the most innovative aspect of the R&D towards extreme fluences. If successful, the project will enable precise tracking and timing well above the present limits. The proposal brings together the fundamental capabilities to successfully accomplish the project targets. The team formed by Torino University, INFN and CNR-IOM merges strong expertise in modelling, designing, and testing thin silicon sensors with internal gain, necessary to boost the knowledge in the field and enables the building of silicon sensors for future high-energy and high-intensity collider experiments.