SiC, diamond, GaN semiconductor investigation as potential radiator for Čerenkov detector.

To complement the existing charged fragment detectors of the MoNA-Sweeper facility at Michigan State University's Facility of Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) and improve the particle identification process, a new Čerenkov detector is under study. This is mainly due to the increased kinetic energy of rare isotopes (above 100MeV/n) and their short flight paths in the FRIB experimental area. The development of this Čerenkov detector stems from a collaboration with the CEMHTI/CNRS research center in Orléans, France. The primary goal of this novel detector is to use a wide-bandgap semiconductor material as a radiator (e.g. SiC, GaN, diamond) to generate the Čerenkov effect. This work focuses on various important parameters: the production of the Čerenkov effect, the lifetime performance required for high levels of irradiation resistance, and the detection of this effect. The study has several components: (i) simulation using SRIM and Geant4 to better understand the produced Čerenkov light; (ii) the study of radiation damage due to implantation at CEMHTI of 2 MeV/n protons at different fluences as a baseline and irradiations at high energies at FRIB with isotopes; (iii) the self-repair capability of GaN using the same irradiation parameters; and (iv) a Čerenkov prototype detector. To complement and extend the simulation results, additional optical and structural characterizations such as Raman spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, and Deep levels Transient Spectroscopy are used for irradiation induced defects. We will present and discuss the results obtained in this study.