Status and Performance of an AGATA asymmetric detector

High‐resolution gamma‐ray detectors based on high‐purity germanium crystals (HPGe) are one of the key workhorses of experimental nuclear science. The technical development of such detector technology has been dramatic in recent years. Large volume, high‐granularity, electrically segmented HPGe detectors have been realised and a methodology to improve position sensitivity using pulse‐shape analysis coupled with the novel technique of gamma‐ray tracking has been developed. Collaborations have been established in Europe (AGATA) [1] and the USA (GRETA/GRETINA) [2] to build gamma‐ray tracking spectrometers. This paper discusses the performance of the first AGATA (Advanced GAmma Tracking Array) asymmetric detector that has been tested at the University of Liverpool. The use of a fully digital data acquisition system has allowed detector charge pulse shapes from a selection of well defined photon interaction positions to be analysed, yielding important information on the position sensitivity of the detector.