Gas avalanche pixel detectors with amorphous silicon carbide (a-Si:C:H) overcoating

The performance of gas avalanche pixel detectors of square and circular geometry, with and without semiconducting surface coating, was characterized in terms of gas gain and active region. Although the electric field profile of the square geometry cannot be radially uniform, a 200 /spl mu/m pitch detector of this type exhibited a maximum gain of /spl sim/12000 which is comparable to that of the circular counterpart. Due to the existence of the anode bus lines passing under the cathodes, there is a defocusing effect of the drift field lines converging to the anodes, resulting in inactive regions where electrons produced from gas ionization are not collected at the anodes. Variation of the count rate with the drift field was measured to probe these defocusing effects. The p-type a-Si:C:H surface coating was effective in reducing these inactive regions.