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  • Identification and simulati...
    Abt, I.; Gooch, C.; Hagemann, F.; Hauertmann, L.; Liu, X.; Schulz, O.; Schuster, M.; Zsigmond, A. J.

    European physical journal. C, Particles and fields, 12/2022, Volume: 82, Issue: 12
    Journal Article

    Events from alpha interactions on the surfaces of germanium detectors are a major contribution to the background in germanium-based searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Surface events are subject to charge trapping, affecting their pulse shape and reconstructed energy. A study of alpha events on the passivated end-plate of a segmented true-coaxial n-type high-purity germanium detector is presented. Charge trapping is analysed in detail and an existing pulse-shape analysis technique to identify alpha events is verified with mirror pulses observed in the non-collecting channels of the segmented test detector. The observed radial dependence of charge trapping confirms previous results. A dependence of the probability of charge trapping on the crystal axes is observed for the first time. A first model to describe charge trapping effects within the framework of the simulation software SolidStateDetectors.jl is introduced. The influence of metalisation on events from low-energy gamma interactions close to the passivated surface is also presented.