Harrison Sims
MPhys Thesis, University of Surrey (January 2016)
Experimental nuclear astrophysics plays a key role in the understanding of our universe. It is therefore critical that measurements conducted in laboratories are as accurate as possible. This dissertation has investigated the plausibility of different digital shaping algorithms to be used for the position extraction of the resistive strip silicon detectors used within GODDESS (the Gammasphere-ORRUBA Dual Detector for Experimental Structure Studies). It was found that a significant increase in position resolution (from 1.0 +/- 0.1 mm to 0.7 +/- 0.1 mm) is generated when the position is extracted by use of a derivative filter, rather than the traditional trapezoidal filter or linear fit method. The elastic scattering of deuterons on 134Xe was also investigated during the commissioning experiment of the detector coupling, GODDESS. Preliminary findings show the relative differential cross section of the elastic scattering to have clear structure, which is expressed as a ratio to Rutherford scattering cross section.
