Science/Engineering/Technical forums

Any body working with PIN diode detectors?

John
Yes I have de husked a hamamatsu optical pin out of its TO5 case so we could use it aka surface barrier detector at a fraction of the price.
It worked but was not nearly as good as the ORTEC surface barrier detectors and it was a bugger for light leakage giving stray signals.
I held the TO5 in a collect in the lathe and cut through the case near the base to get rid of the optical window- Saphire in this case
Depletion layer is not as deep so less bias and more noise.

But what do you expect a good Ortec detector = US$900 hamamatsu pin optical diode approx US$10

My only experience (that I know of) with PIN diodes was a "personal radiation safety detector" Bill Fain bought for us to test. It had a supposedly large-area pin diode between two pieces of copper tape (keep the light out) and a preamp and amp to click when radiation hit, clamed also to be sensitive to neutrons.

Well, in some sense, probabably. They were so numb it was hard to get 60 cpm with on laying on top of my fusor - eg enough to completely saturate a geiger counter or 3He tube. Even tobernite - waste from a natural reactor in Africa that makes even a pen type electrostatic dosimeter read, was "nothing" to one of those. So, we sent it back.

John
do you have the part No? was thinking of a BA679 but not a good shape, possibly S2744-08 or S3204-08

John
The ones I used were Hamamatsu 1223 pin diodes
element 14 149 5587

Tks John - is it 350851382173 ?