The construction and operation of a hybrid gas-silicon detector for studies of cluster breakup reactions

A hybrid detector system has been constructed consisting of a gas filled ionization chamber and a large area silicon semiconductor strip detector within the same gas volume. The construction and operation of these detectors is described, together with a brief description of the electronics and data acquisition system used in cluster breakup studies. The techniques for software correction and gain matching of the detector energy signals are described and results are presented for the resolutions in energy, position and time. In a typical application, elements up to Ca are easily resolved and the positions of individual ions are measured with a resolution of <0.2 mm in the reaction plane, whilst energy resolutions approaching 200 keV can be obtained from the Si strip detector over a small area. Some spectra are presented for measurements of the breakup of 24Mg into 12C + 12C.