Exploring radiation hardness of PEPITES, a new transparent charged particle beam profiler

PEPITES is a new type of transparent beam profiler (<10 µm water-equivalent thickness (WET)) under development that will equip the beam line of the ARRONAX cyclotron. Segmented electrodes consisting of nanometric thick gold strips deposited on a thin polymer membrane make the active part. In order to characterize the damages induced in the polymer, UV–Vis spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope have been used on 8 μm thick Kapton polyimide membranes irradiated with 68 MeV proton beams up to 7 × 1015 H+/cm2. Dynamic and permanent damage was observed only at a high fluence level, thus ensuring long-term operation of the PEPITES detector in its nominal working environment.