Thickness and uniformity mapping of thin foils using resistive silicon detectors

Alpha energy loss is a common tool used for measuring target thicknesses. However, these measurements are often made without position information, which either forfeits knowledge of material uniformity and local thickness or requires a prohibitive number of measurements per target to partially recover this information. In consideration of this, a method for measuring position-dependent thicknesses is described in this work; by using the position-sensitivity of the dual-axis duo-lateral (DADL) silicon detector, thicknesses across the entire face of the material can be measured to sub-mm precision with a single measurement. Several examples are presented using a number of targets with varying characteristics, which altogether demonstrate the precision, accuracy, and versatility of this technique.