Signal generation in highly irradiated silicon microstrip detectors for the ATLAS experiment

Silicon detectors are the most diffused tracking devices in High Energy Physics (HEP). The reason of such success can be found in the characteristics of the material together with the existing advanced technology for the fabrication of these devices. Nevertheless in many modem HEP experiments the observation of vary rare events require data taking at high luminosity with a consequent extremely intense hadron radiation field that damages the silicon and degrades the performance of these devices. In this thesis work a detailed study of the signal generation in microstrip detectors has been produced with a special care for the ATLAS semiconductor tracker geometry. This has required a development of an appropriate setup to perform measurements with Transient Current/ Charge Technique. This has allowed studying the evolution of the signal in several microstrips detector samples irradiated at fluences covering the range expected in the ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker. For a better understanding of these measurements a powerful software package that simulates the signal generation in these devices has been developed. Moreover in this thesis it has been also shown that the degradation due to radiation in silicon detectors can be strongly reduced if the data taking is done with detectors operated at 130 K. This makes low temperature operation that benefits of the recovery of the charge collection efficiency in highly irradiated silicon detectors (also known as Lazarus effect) an optimal option for future high luminosity experiments.