Enhancement in energy resolution of silicon surface barrier detector at low temperature

Silicon Surface Barrier detector has been used to study the invariance of alpha decay rate under lattice compression using unstable Astatine ions implanted in Palladium and Silicon foils. To study the change in alpha decay rate with high precision, it was necessary to achieve a good energy resolution of the detector. The detector and preamplifier were placed inside the vacuum chamber and cooled up to 213 K. An enhancement in the energy resolution of Silicon Surface Barrier detector has been achieved from 110 keV at 300 K to 40 keV at 213 K for 5869.5 keV alpha line. The cooling technique and the results will be presented.