Charge sharing of single photons in finely segmented pixel detectors

Monochromatic X and gamma rays are a standard calibration tool for semiconductor detector. For finely segmented pixel detectors, like the ones foreseen for HL-LHC detector upgrades, the single pixel spectrum is affected by charge sharing across nearby pixels, due to diffusion and the finite range of photoelectrons, resulting in a low energy continuum below the photoelectric peak. In this paper a systematic simulation study will be presented. The shape of the transition between the photoelectric peak and the continuum is determined by diffusion and needs to be unfolded for a correct estimation of the energy resolution. Simulation results are compared with data collected with different high-resistivity CMOS devices with 50 × 250 μm2 pixel size and photon energies between 13 and 60 keV. They show a good agreement, highlighting the potential usage of the whole single pixel spectrum to derive device characteristics.