Knock-on electrons in WA98 silicon drift detector

Silicon Drift Detector is used to estimate production of knock-on electrons created by passage of 158 GeV /u fully stripped Pb ion through thick lead target. Analysed data were collected in 1995 during Pb+Pb run in WA98 heavy ion experiment at CERN SPS. Information from WA98 Cherenkov beam counter makes it possible to classify events according to number of additional Pb ions which have during detector's read-out time passed through the target without nuclear interaction. Events with one and none pile-up ion are used for statistical separation of knock-on electrons from all detected charged particles. Resulting inclusive spectra of knock-on electrons are compared with GRANT simulations and good agreement is found. (author)