Femtosecond laser studies of the Single Event Effects in Low Gain Avalanche Detectors and PINs at ELI Beamlines

A feasibility study conducted at the laser facility ELI Beamlines confirms that fs-laser pulses can produce Single Event Effect (SEE), Single Event Upset (SEU) and Single Event Burnout (SEB) conditions in irradiated Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs) and the corresponding PIN diodes. A comprehensive and systematic study on PIN and LGAD mortality has been conducted to experimentally determine the stability, instability, and irreversible damage thresholds for LGADs and PINs exploiting a fs-laser system. Thresholds are given as sets of two parameters: bias voltage and laser pulse energy (energy deposition threshold). Using the Two-Photon Absorption (TPA) - Transient Current Technique (TCT) to study the mechanism that triggers SEU/SEB conditions in LGADs, as a function of illumination position establishes this technique as a promising tool for more advanced explorations of SEE, not only in LGADs but also in other Si-based sensors. To achieve these results, a highly flexible and versatile fs-laser-based TCT experimental setup has been developed at ELI Beamlines, allowing two TCT modalities with the same setup: Single Photon Absorption (SPA) at 800 nm laser wavelength and TPA at 1550 nm.