A micron resolution optical scanner for characterization of silicon detectors

The emergence of high position resolution (∼10 μm) silicon detectors in recent times have highlighted the urgent need for the development of new automated optical scanners of micron level resolution suited for characterizing microscopic features of these detectors. More specifically, for the newly developed silicon photo-multipliers (SiPM) that are compact, possessing excellent photon detection efficiency with gain comparable to photo-multiplier tube. In a short time, since their invention the SiPMs are already being widely used in several high-energy physics and astrophysics experiments as the photon readout element. The SiPM is a high quantum efficiency, multi-pixel photon counting detector with fast timing and high gain. The presence of a wide variety of photo sensitive silicon detectors with high spatial resolution requires their performance evaluation to be carried out by photon beams of very compact spot size. We have designed a high resolution optical scanner that provides a monochromatic focused b...