Ionization Yield in Silicon for eV-Scale Electron-Recoil Processes

Understand

The development of single charge resolving, macroscopic silicon detectors has opened a window into rare processes at the O(eV) scale.

• In order to reconstruct the energy of a given event, or model the charge signal obtained for a given amount of energy absorbed by the electrons in a detector, an accurate charge yield model is needed.
• In this paper we review existing measurements of charge yield in Silicon, focusing in particular on the region below 1 keV.
• We highlight a calibration gap between 12-50 eV (referred to as the "UV-gap") and employ a phenomenological model of impact ionization to explore the likely charge yield in this energy regime.