Study of anomalous charge collection efficiency in heavily irradiated silicon strip detectors

Anomalous charge collection efficiency observed in heavily irradiated silicon strip detectors operated at high bias voltages has been studied in terms of a simple model and experimentally using 25 ns shaping electronics and transient current technique (TCT) with edge-on laser injection. The model confirmed qualitatively the explanation by electron impact ionization in the high electric field close to the strips, but failed in the quantitative description of the collected charge. First results on a Hamamatsu strip detector irradiated to 5×1015 neq/cm2 and operated at bias voltages in excess of 1000 V exhibit charge collection similar to what obtained on Micron devices. TCT tests with local charge injection by a laser confirm the validity of a linear extrapolation of trapping to very high fluences and reveal significant charge collection from the non-depleted volume of the detector.