An experimental characterisation of a Broad Energy Germanium detector

The spectroscopic and charge collection performance of a BE2825 Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detector has been experimentally investigated. The efficiency and energy resolution of the detector have been measured as a function of energy and the noise contributions to the preamplifier signal have been determined. Collimated gamma-ray sources mounted on an automated 3-axis scanning table have been used to study the variation in preamplifier signal shape with gamma-ray interaction position in the detector, so that the position-dependent charge collection process could be characterised. A suite of experimental measurements have also been undertaken to investigate the performance of the detector as a function of bias voltage and we report on anomalous behaviour observed when the detector was operating close to the depletion voltage.