Silicon strip detectors for the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) at the HL-LHC must withstand harsh radiation conditions, including fluences of up to 1.6 & times; 10151 MeVneq/cm2 and total ionizing doses (TID) of up to 66 Mrad. These requirements are met using radiation-hard n+-in-p technology implemented in the ATLAS18 silicon strip sensors currently under production. This work presents a combined study of y-irradiation effects in ATLAS18 silicon sensors, including both segmented miniature strip sensors ("minis") and unsegmented MD8 diodes fabricated on ATLAS18 production wafers. The samples were irradiated with a 60Co y source to multiple low TIDs between 0.5 and 100 krad, corresponding to the dose range relevant for the early operational phase of the ITk tracker. Additional measurements extending up to a few Mrad were performed to investigate the saturation of surface related damage effects. Post-irradiation characterization included measurements of total, bulk, and surface leakage currents, as well as capacitance-voltage measurements used to extract the full depletion voltage. The thermal stability of radiation-induced defects was studied using isochronal annealing between 80 degrees C and 300 degrees C and isothermal annealing at 60 degrees C and 160 degrees C. In addition, complementary studies of MD8 diodes irradiated to ultra-high doses of several hundred Mrad, well beyond the ATLAS ITk requirements, are included to investigate possible bulk-related effects induced by pure y irradiation and their annealing behavior. The combined analysis of low-and ultra-high-dose irradiation provides a comprehensive picture of surface-and bulk-related y-induced effects in ATLAS18 silicon sensors and their thermal evolution.

The TRIGA Mark II research reactor at the Jo & zcaron;ef Stefan Institute is a key facility in the field of nuclear research, characterized by its versatility and applicability in a wide range of scientific disciplines. This document highlights its operational history, contributions to nuclear safety, education and various scientific applications, including advances in reactor and radiation physics, neutron activation analysis, environmental science and even contributions to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the reactor's significant role in fostering international collaborations, improving computer modeling techniques for nuclear research, and providing invaluable educational experiences. The great versatility and applicability of the JSI TRIGA reactor is emphasized by its adaptability to various research needs and its ability to enable groundbreaking studies in both fundamental and applied sciences.

The objective of the study is to evaluate the evolution of the performance of the new ATLAS Inner-Tracker (ITk) strip sensors as a function of radiation exposure, to ensure the proper operation of the upgraded detector during the lifetime of the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). Full-size ATLAS ITk Barrel Short-Strip (SS) sensors with final layout design, ATLAS18SS, have been irradiated with neutrons and gammas, to confirm the results obtained with prototypes and miniature sensors during the development phase. The irradiations cover a wide range of fluences and doses that ITk will experience, going from 1x10(13) n(eq)/cm(2) and 0.49 Mrad, to 1.6x10(15) neq/cm(2) and 80 Mrad. The split irradiation enables a proper combination of fluence and dose values of the HL-LHC, including a 1.5 safety factor. A complete electrical characterization of the key sensor parameters before and after irradiation is presented, studying the leakage current, bulk capacitance, single-strip and inter-strip characteristics. The results confirm the fulfilment of the ATLAS specifications throughout the whole experiment. The study of a wide range of fluences and doses also allows to obtain detailed results, such as the frequency dependence of the bulk capacitance measurements for highly irradiated sensors, or the evolution of the punch-through protection and inter-strip resistance with radiation.

The production of strip sensors for the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) started in 2021. Since then, a Quality Assurance (QA) program has been carried out continuously, by using specific test structures, in parallel to the Quality Control (QC) inspection of the sensors. The QA program consists of monitoring sensor-specific characteristics and the technological process variability, before and after the irradiation with gammas, neutrons, and protons. After two years, half of the full production volume has been reached and we present an analysis of the parameters measured as part of the QA process. The main devices used for QA purposes are miniature strip sensors, monitor diodes, and the ATLAS test chip, which contains several test structures. Such devices are tested by several sites across the collaboration depending on the type of samples (non-irradiated components or irradiated with protons, neutrons, or gammas). The parameters extracted from the tests are then uploaded to a database and analyzed by Python scripts. These parameters are mainly examined through histograms and time-evolution plots to obtain parameter distributions, production trends, and meaningful parameter-to-parameter correlations. The purpose of this analysis is to identify possible deviations in the fabrication or the sensor quality, changes in the behavior of the test equipment at different test sites, or possible variability in the irradiation processes. The conclusions extracted from the QA program have allowed test optimization, establishment of control limits for the parameters, and a better understanding of device properties and fabrication trends. In addition, any abnormal results prompt immediate feedback to a vendor.

We present an analysis of the fluence profile at the JSI TRIGA neutron reactor facility in Ljubljana. For the study, multi-pad Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) are used. The deactivation of acceptor doping in the gain layer implant due to the irradiation, typical of LGAD devices, is exploited to map the fluence profile inside the irradiation channels. The amount of active doping of the LGAD gain layer is extracted via capacitance-voltage measurements for each pad before and after irradiation to a fluence of 1.5×1015n˙eq/cm2, where neq stands for 1 MeV equivalent neutron count, providing a precise and prompt measurement of the fluence distribution over the LGAD sensor. Experimental results are compared to neutron fluence expectations calculated with Monte Carlo techniques.

This study investigates the correlation between the gain, defined as the increase of measured charge generated from the absorption of incident radiation, and the gain measured as the increase of sensor leakage current in Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) before and after neutron irradiations. LGADs exhibit high signal-to-noise ratios for minimum ionizing particles and will be used in highenergy physics experiments, mainly related to timing applications. Transient Current Technique (TCT) measurements were conducted with LGADs and PIN diodes. The electric field screening effect, caused by free and trapped carriers, is identified as the main reason for the differences measured in gain determined from the increase in leakage current and collected charge. These effects are more significant in irradiated LGAD sensors. The experimental results confirm expectations, demonstrating a growing spread between the two measured gains with fluence. The study enables the prediction of charge gain from the leakage current measurements, which are easier to conduct.

For the ATLAS Phase-II Upgrade the inner tracker of the ATLAS detector will be replaced by the new full silicon tracker ITk designed for operation in the HL-LHC environment. ITk consists of several layers of silicon particle detectors. The innermost layers will be composed of silicon pixel sensors, and the outer layers will consist of silicon microstrip sensors. This contribution focuses on the strip region of the ITk. The central part of the strip tracker (barrel) will be composed of rectangular short (~2.5 cm) and long (~5 cm) strip sensors. The forward regions of the strip tracker (end-caps) consist of six disks per side, with trapezoidal shaped sensors of various lengths and strip pitches. After the completion of final design reviews in key areas, such as Sensors, Modules, Front-End electronics, and ASICs, a large scale prototyping program has been successfully completed in all areas. In this contribution, we present an overview of the Strip System and highlight the final design choices of sensors, module designs and ASICs. We will summarise results achieved during prototyping and the current status of pre-production and production of various detector components, with an emphasis on QA and QC procedures.

In preparation for the forthcoming High-Luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider, the ATLAS experiment is working on major upgrades to its detector systems to effectively accommodate the increase in radiation levels and track density. The foremost among these upgrades entails the replacement of the current inner tracking detector with an advanced all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). In the outer region of the ITk apparatus is the Strip Detector.Central to the new strip tracking system are the ITk Strip modules, comprising silicon sensors and hybrid Printed Circuit Boards housing the integral read-out Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) as well as power distribution services. Thorough characterisation of the electrical characteristics of the silicon strip modules at various stages of the assembly procedure holds paramount significance in evaluating module performance. This rigorous evaluation ensures timely identification of any anomalies, thereby enabling proactive remedial measures. Notably, during the course of these electrical assessments, certain modules manifested breakdown phenomena occurring below the prescribed threshold of 500 V, mandated by the ITk Quality Control protocols.Based on these observations, controlled exposure to low levels of radiation was suspected to elevate the breakdown voltage in susceptible sensors. This contribution presents results from two irradiation campaigns to investigate potentially beneficial effects of irradiation. One study investigates the effects of gamma irradiation on modules showing an early breakdown after gluing. For this study, modules were exposed to an ionising dose of 11 krad (corresponding to the dose accumulated after several days of operation in the HL-LHC) utilising a 60Co source. The second campaign focuses on silicon sensor test structures with low breakdown voltage due to intentionally caused mechanical defects and their development after exposure to reactor neutrons. In both cases, preliminary findings suggest a discernible improvement in the breakdown voltage.

As nuclear and particle physics facilities move to higher intensities, the detectors used there must be more radiation tolerant. Diamond is in use at many facilities due to its inherent radiation tolerance and ease of use. In this article we present our radiation tolerance measurements of the highest quality polycrystalline Chemical Vapor Deposition (pCVD) diamond material for irradiations from a range of proton energies, pions and neutrons up to a fluence of 2 x 10(16) particles/cm(2). We have measured the damage constant as a function of energy and particle species and compared it with theoretical models. We also present measurements of the rate dependence of pulse height for non-irradiated and irradiated pCVD diamond pad and pixel detectors, including detectors tested over a range of particle fluxes up to 20 MHz/cm(2) with both pad and pixel readout electronics. Our test beam results indicate a 2% upper limit to the pulse height dependence of unirradiated and neutron irradiated pCVD diamond detectors leading to the conclusion that the pulse height in pCVD diamond detectors is, at most, minimally dependent on the particle flux.

Results in this paper present an in-depth study of time resolution for active pixels of the RD50-MPW2 prototype CMOS particle detector. Measurement techniques employed include Backside- and Edge-TCT configurations, in addition to electrons from a 90 Sr source. A sample irradiated to 5 · 10 14 n eq /cm 2 was used to study the effect of radiation damage. Timing performance was evaluated for the entire pixel matrix and with positional sensitivity within individual pixels as a function of the deposited charge. Time resolution obtained with TCT is seen to be uniform throughout the pixel's central region with approx. 220 ps at 12 ke - of deposited charge, degrading at the edges and lower values of deposited charge. 90 Sr measurements show a slightly worse time resolution as a result of delayed events coming from the peripheral areas of the pixel.

The bulk damage of p-type silicon sensors caused by gamma irradiation with high total ionizing doses has been investigated. The study was carried out on different types of n+-in-p silicon diodes with different oxygen concentrations and silicon bulk resistivities. The Secondary-Ion Mass Spectrometry technique was used to determine the relative concentration of oxygen in the individual samples. The measured diodes were irradiated by a 60Co gamma source to total ionizing doses ranging from 0.50 up to 8.28 MGy, and annealed for 80 min at 60 °C. The main goal of the study was to characterize the gamma-radiation induced displacement damage by measuring I–V and C–V characteristics, and the evolution of the full depletion voltage with the total ionizing dose. The Transient Current Technique was used to verify the full depletion voltage and to extract the electric field distribution and the sign of the space charge in the silicon diodes irradiated to the lowest and the highest delivered total ionizing doses.The results show a linear increase of the bulk leakage current with the total ionizing dose, with the damage coefficient being dependent on initial resistivity and oxygen concentration of the silicon diode. The effective doping concentration and full depletion voltage decrease significantly with an increasing total ionizing dose, before starting to increase again at a specific dose. We assume that the initial decrease in the effective doping concentration is caused by the effect of acceptor removal. An additional notable finding of this study is that the bulk leakage current and C–V characteristics of the gamma-irradiated diodes do not show any evidence of an annealing effect.

The successful pre-production delivery of strip sensors for the new Inner Tracker (ITk) for the upgraded ATLAS detector at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) at CERN was completed and based on their performance full production has commenced. The overall delivery period is anticipated to last 4 years to complete the approximately 22000 sensors required for the ITk. For Quality Assurance (QA), a number of test structures designed by the collaboration, along with a large area diode and miniature version of the main sensor, are produced in every wafer by the foundry Hamamatsu Photonics K.K (HPK). As well as Quality Control (QC) checks on every main sensor, samples of the QA pieces from each delivery batch are tested both before and after irradiation with results after exposure to neutrons, gammas or protons to fluences and doses corresponding to those anticipated after operation at the HL-LHC to roughly 1.5 times the ultimate integrated luminosity of 4000 fb -1 . In this paper the procedures are presented and the studies carried out to establish that the seven ITk QA Strip Sensor irradiation and test sites meet all the requirements to support this very extensive programme throughout the strip sensor production phase for the ITk project.

In order to continue the program of the LHC, the accelerator will be upgraded to the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), which will have a design luminosity of $5 \times 10^{34} cm^{-2}s^{-1}$ , an order of magnitude greater than the present machine. In order to meet the occupancy and radiation hardness requirements resulting from this increase in luminosity, the present ATLAS tracking detector must be replaced. The ATLAS Collaboration is constructing a new central tracking system based completely on silicon sensors. In order to satisfy the radiation hardness requirements we have developed a new n-in-p sensor design. Extensive studies have shown that it results in detectors which comfortably reach the required end-of-life performance. The latest sensor layouts prepared for preproduction, known as ATLAS18, implement this design. However, as well as knowing the performance after a given irradiation fluence, operational considerations require an understanding of the time development of the annealing and resulting variation of the collected charge, of irradiated detectors at different temperatures. Here we describe the measurement of charge collection performance as a function of irradiated fluence and long term annealing time. We also describe a semi-empirical model based on these measurements which allows us to predict the end-of-life charge collection as a function of the temperature profile during operation of the detector. The use of the model to study the effect of annealing on the strip detector at a radius of 40 cm and an integrated irradiation fluence of $\textrm{1.6} \times \textrm{10}^{15} \ \textrm{24}~\textrm{MeV}~\textrm{neutron}~\textrm{ equiv}~\textrm{cm}^{-2}$ is presented.

Low gain avalanche detectors (LGADs) were investigated with transient current technique utilizing 1064 nm light to determine the effect of ionization density on the measured gain. The ionization density was varied with laser intensity and width of the beam spot. A model was derived explaining the decrease of gain due to the polarization of the gain layer, which reduces the electric field. The model was also tested at different ionization densities for LGADs of different gain layer design.

During the prototyping phase of the new ATLAS Inner-Tracker (ITk) strip sensors, a degradation of the device breakdown voltage at high humidity was observed. Although the degradation was temporary, showing a fast recovery in dry conditions, the study of the influence of humidity on the sensor performance was critical to establish counter-measures and handling protocols during production testing in order to ensure the proper performance of the upgraded detector. The work presented here has the objective to study for the first time the breakdown voltage deterioration in presence of ambient humidity of ATLAS ITk production-layout strip sensors with different surface properties, before and after proton, neutron and gamma irradiations. A study of the humidity sensitivity of miniature ATLAS ITk strip sensors, before and after proton irradiations, is also presented to compare the sensitivity of devices with different sizes. The sensors were also exposed for several days to high humidity with the aim to recreate and evaluate the influence of the detector integration environment expected during the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Long Shutdown 3 (LS3) in 2026, where the sensors will be exposed to ambient humidity for prolonged times.

The high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, foreseen for 2029, requires the replacement of the ATLAS Inner Detector with a new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). The expected ultimate total integrated luminosity of 4000 fb(-1) means that the strip part of the ITk detector will be exposed to the total particle fluences and ionizing doses reaching the values of 1.6 center dot 10(15) MeVn(eq)/cm(2) and 0.66MGy, respectively, including a safety factor of 1.5. Radiation hard n(+)-in-p micro-strip sensors were developed by the ATLAS ITk strip collaboration and are produced by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. The active area of each ITk strip sensor is delimited by the n-implant bias ring, which is connected to each individual n(+) implant strip by a polysilicon bias resistor. The total resistance of the polysilicon bias resistor should be within a specified range to keep all the strips at the same potential, prevent the signal discharge through the grounded bias ring and avoid the readout noise increase. While the polysilicon is a ubiquitous semiconductor material, the fluence and temperature dependence of its resistance is not easily predictable, especially for the tracking detector with the operational temperature significantly below the values typical for commercial microelectronics. Dependence of the resistance of polysilicon bias resistor on the temperature, as well as on the total delivered fluence and ionizing dose, was studied on the specially-designed test structures called ATLAS Testchips, both before and after their irradiation by protons, neutrons, and gammas to the maximal expected fluence and ionizing dose. The resistance has an atypical negative temperature dependence. It is different from silicon, which shows that the grain boundary has a significant contribution to the resistance. We discuss the contributions by parameterizing the activation energy of the polysilicon resistance as a function of the temperature for unirradiated and irradiated ATLAS Testchips.

Studies of annealing at temperatures up to 450$^\circ$C with LGADs irradiated with neutrons are described. It was found that the performance of LGADs irradiated with 1.5e15 n/cm$^2$ was already improved at 5 minutes of annealing at 250$^\circ$C. Isochronal annealing for 30 minutes in 50$^\circ$C steps between 300$^\circ$C and 450$^\circ$C showed that the largest beneficial effect of annealing is at around 350$^\circ$C. Another set of devices was annealed for 60 minutes at 350$^\circ$C and this annealing significantly increased V$_{\mathrm{gl}}$. The effect is equivalent to reducing the effective acceptor removal constant by a factor of $\sim$ 4. Increase of V$_{\mathrm{gl}}$ is the consequence of increased effective space charge in the gain layer caused by formation of electrically active defects or re-activation of interstitial Boron atoms.

A bstract A search for the exclusive decays of the Higgs and Z bosons to a ϕ or ρ meson and a photon is performed with a pp collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 35 . 6 fb −1 collected at $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. These decays have been suggested as a probe of the Higgs boson couplings to light quarks. No significant excess of events is observed above the background, as expected from the Standard Model. Upper limits at 95% confidence level were obtained on the branching fractions of the Higgs boson decays to ϕ γ and ρ γ of 4 . 8 × 10 −4 and 8 . 8 × 10 −4 , respectively. The corresponding 95% confidence level upper limits for the Z boson decays are 0 . 9 × 10 −6 and 25 × 10 −6 for ϕ γ and ρ γ, respectively.

A search for leptoquarks decaying into the bτ final state is performed using Run 2 proton-proton collision data from the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 at √(s) = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector. The benchmark models considered in this search are vector leptoquarks with electric charge of 2/3e and scalar leptoquarks with an electric charge of 4/3e. No significant excess above the Standard Model prediction is observed, and 95