Development of Ultrafast Timing Detectors Using Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Materials

Our aim is to develop silicon carbide ultrafast timing detectors (low gain avalanche detectors (LGADs)) for future applications to collider physics, using wide band gap materials as an alternative to Silicon. The advantages include high temperature operation, radiation resistance, and faster intrinsic response than Silicon LGADs. Such devices may offer transformative features such as a dramatic reduction in the cost, complexity, and mass of tracker cooling systems. Fast (~10's of picoseconds) timing, is a widely sought feature for upgraded collider trackers

in order to disentangle multiple interactions at high luminosity and assist in particle identification

. Present Silicon based LGAD detectors still suffer from the same limitations as regular silicon strip and pixel detectors – they must be operated at low (-40 C) temperatures to mitigate the effects of radiation damage including increased leakage current and power dissipation, and changes in the effective acceptor concentration. This leads to complex, costly, and massive cooling systems, and the use of exotic thermal materials in the support structures. Furthermore, delicate and complex sensor modules structures, which are built at room temperature, must then be tested and made to function, identically, at low temperature. This requirement introduces a myriad of system issues around mechanical stress in materials and adhesives, and the behavior of active and passive electronic components. Thus the approach in this proposal to make Silicon Carbide LGAD detectors, that can be operated at room temperature while providing similar or better timing resolution, has the potential to greatly reduce system level complexity and cost, while offering similar or better performance.