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# Quantum Dot and Hole Formation in Sputter Erosion

## Abstract

Recently it was experimentally demonstrated that sputtering under normal incidence leads to the formation of spatially ordered uniform nanoscale islands or holes. Here we show that these nanostructures have inherently nonlinear origin, first appearing when the nonlinear terms start to dominate the surface dynamics. Depending on the sign of the nonlinear terms, determined by the shape of the collision cascade, the surface can develop regular islands or holes with identical dynamical features, and while the size of these nanostructures is independent of flux and temperature, it can be modified by tuning the ion energy.

PACS numbers:68.55.-a,68.65.+g,05.45.-a

The fabrication and physical properties of quantum dots (QDs) are topics of high current interest due to their applications in optical devices and as potential construction blocks of novel computer architectures. However, despite the high interest in the subject, the methods available for the fabrication of such dots are rather limited. Lithographic techniques, while undergoing rapid improvements in resolution, still cannot produce small and dense enough dots necessary for device applications. While much research has focused on self-assembled QD formation , that generates dots through the unique combination of strain and growth kinetics, these techniques offered relatively uniform islands only for a few material combinations and still have to find their way into devices. Consequently, there is continued high demand for alternative methods that would allow low cost and efficient mass fabrication of QDs. In the light of these technological driving forces, the recent demonstration that sputter erosion can lead to uniform nanoscale islands, that exhibit quantum confinement, will undoubtly capture the interest of the scientific community . Ion beam sputtering has long been a leading candidate for surface patterning. While ripple formation on sputter eroded surfaces has been observed already in the 70s, in the last decade much work has been devoted to understand both the experimental and theoretical aspects of this fascinating self-organized phenomena. However, most experiments have focused on off-normal incidence, that, by breaking the symmetry along the surface, leads to anisotropic structures, such as ripples. While theoretically it was expected that under normal incidence the ripples should be replaced by some periodic cellular structures, such surface features have not been observed experimentally. Recently, two groups have obtained simultaneous advances in this direction. Facsko $`et`$ $`al.`$, investigating low-energy normal incident Ar+ sputtering of GaSb (100) surfaces, observed that as erosion proceeds, nanoscale islands appear on the surface, that are remarkably well ordered, and have a uniform size distribution. On the other hand, recent experiments of Ar+ sputtering of Cu(110), and Ne+ sputtering of Ag (001) under normal incidence lead to relatively uniform depressions or holes . These experiments, while represent significant technological breakthroughs, raise a number of questions regarding the mechanisms responsible for the formation of these nanostructures. While it is tempting to interpret these structures as periodic perturbations expected by the linear theory of sputtering , a careful analysis of the experimental results indicates that such approach is less than satisfactory. To mention only a few discrepancies, Facsko $`et`$ $`al.`$ reported that the obtained island size is independent of temperature, while, according to the linear theory their size should decrease exponentially with $`T`$ . Also, the linear theory would predict at best a cellular structure displaying a square lattice, in contrast with the hexagonal ordering observed in experiments .

In this paper we present the first detailed theory addressing the formation of sputter-induced QDs and holes. We demonstrate that these structures are the result of inherently nonlinear phenomena, and thus they cannot be accounted for in the context of the linear theory. We find that regular nanostructures first appear as the nonlinear terms become relevant, allowing us to predict the characteristic time, $`\tau `$, necessary for their formation, and calculate the dependence of $`\tau `$ on the physical parameters characterizing the ion bombardment process. Furthermore, we show that the QDs and holes, observed in different experiments, are governed by the same physical phenomena, the difference between them coming from the shape of the ion cascade characterizing the interaction of the bombarding ions with the substrate. Finally, we predict that the size of these islands and holes, while independent of flux and temperature, depends on the ion energy.

A particularly successful description of the morphological evolution of sputter eroded surfaces has been proposed by Bradley and Harper (BH), based on Sigmund’s theory of sputtering, predicting that the height $`h(x,y,t)`$ of the eroded surface is described by the linear equation

$$_th=\nu _x_x^2h+\nu _y_y^2hK^4h,$$
(1)
where $`\nu _x`$ and $`\nu _y`$ are effective surface tensions, generated by the erosion process and $`K`$ is the surface diffusion constant induced by thermal diffusion. The balance of the unstable erosion term ($`|\nu |^2h`$) and the surface diffusion term ($`K^4h`$) acting to smooth the surface, generates ripples with wavelength

$$\mathrm{}_i=2\pi \sqrt{2K/|\nu _i|},$$
(2)
where $`i`$ refers to the direction ($`x`$ or $`y`$) along which $`\nu _i`$ ($`\nu _x`$ or $`\nu _y`$) is the largest. While successful in predicting the ripple wavelength and orientation, the linear theory fails to explain a number of experimental features, such as the saturation of the ripple amplitude, or the appearance of kinetic roughening. To address these questions it has been proposed  that these shortcomings can be cured by the inclusion of nonlinear terms and noise, derived from the Sigmund’s theory of sputtering. Consequently, Eq. (1) has to be replaced by the nonlinear equation,

$`_th`$ $`=`$ $`\nu _x_x^2h+\nu _y_y^2hD_x_x^4hD_y_y^4hD_{xy}_x^2_y^2h`$ (4)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _x}{2}}(_xh)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _y}{2}}(_yh)^2+\eta (x,y,t),`$
where $`\lambda _x`$ and $`\lambda _y`$ describe the tilt-dependent erosion rate, depending on flux $`f`$ and the penetration depth $`a`$, and $`\eta (x,y,t)`$ is an uncorrelated white noise with zero mean, mimicking the randomness resulting from the stochastic nature of ion arrival to the surface . Furthermore, the sputtering process always generates ion induced effective diffusion, that together with thermal diffusion, are incorporated in $`D_x`$, $`D_y`$, and $`D_{xy}`$ . Under normal incidence, the coefficients in (3) are isotropic, given by

$$\nu \nu _x=\nu _y=faa_\sigma ^2/2a_\mu ^2,$$
(5)
$$DD_x=D_y=fa^3a_\sigma ^2/8a_\mu ^4,$$
(6)
$$\lambda \lambda _x=\lambda _y=(f/2a_\mu ^2)(a_\sigma ^2a_\sigma ^4a_\mu ^2),$$
(7)
where $`a_\mu =a/\mu `$ and $`a_\sigma =a/\sigma `$ and $`\mu `$ and $`\sigma `$, defined in Fig. 1a, characterize the shape of the collision cascade of the bombarding ion.

To investigate the origin of the QDs and the dynamics of QD formation under normal incident ion sputtering, we integrated numerically the continuum equation (3), using standard discretization techniques, and isotropic coefficients as expected for normal incidence. We choose a temporal increment $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=0.01`$ and impose periodic boundary conditions $`h(x,y,t)=h(x+L,y,t)=h(x,y+L,t)`$ where $`L\times L`$ is the size of the substrate. To improve the uniformity of the QDs, the numerical simulations were carried out without noise ($`\eta =0`$), using instead a random initial surface configuration. However, we repeated the simulations for the noisy case as well, finding that the size uniformity of QDs is enhanced as the noise amplitude decreases.

Our main result, presenting the morphology of the ion sputtered surface at three different stages of their time evolution, is shown in Fig. 2. Let us first concentrate on the $`\lambda >0`$ case (upper panels in Fig. 2). In the early stages of the sputtering process the surface is dominated by small, wavy perturbations (Fig. 2a) generated by the interplay between the ion induced instability and surface relaxation. However, since the system is isotropic in the $`(x,y)`$ plane, these ripple precursors are oriented randomly, generating short wormlike morphologies on the surface. After some characteristic time, $`\tau `$, these structures turn into isolated but closely packed islands, reminiscent of the QDs reported experimentally (Fig. 2b). Note that upon a closer inspection one can observe the emergence of hexagonal order in the island positions. As the sputtering proceeds, while the islands do not disappear, the supporting surface develops a rough profile, destroying the overall uniformity of the islands (Fig. 2c). A similar scenario is observed for $`\lambda <0`$, the only difference being that now the islands are replaced by holes (Figs. 2d-f), reminiscent of the morphologies observed experimentally by Rusponi $`et`$ $`al.`$. The first conclusion we can draw from these results is that the development of QDs and holes is governed by the same underlying physical phenomena, the only difference being that for QDs we have $`\lambda >0`$, and for holes $`\lambda <0`$. Indeed, this morphological change is expected from the nonlinear continuum theory, Eq. (3) being symmetric under the simultaneous transformation $`\lambda \lambda `$ and $`hh`$, indicating that changing the sign of $`\lambda `$ does not affect the dynamics of the surface evolution, but simply turns the islands into mirrored holes. Since, according to (6) the sign of $`\lambda `$ is determined only by the relative magnitude of $`a_\sigma `$ and $`a_\mu `$, whether islands or holes appear is determined by the shape of the collision cascade, shown in Fig. 1a. Consequently, using (6) we can draw a phase diagram in terms of the reduced penetration depths $`a_\sigma `$ and $`a_\mu `$ that separates the regions displaying QDs versus holes (Fig. 1b). These results also indicate that the QDs and holes are inherently nonlinear objects, that can be explained only by the nonlinear theory, since, should the linear terms be responsible for their formation, the surface morphology should not depend on the sign of $`\lambda `$ (indeed, Eq. (1) has a full $`hh`$ symmetry). In the following, we investigate the dynamics of QD and hole formation, providing further proof of their common nonlinear origin.

The crossover behavior from the linear to the nonlinear regimes can be monitored through the surface width, $`W^2(L,t)\frac{1}{L^2}_{x,y}h^2(x,y,t)\overline{h}^2`$. As Fig. 3 shows, this quantity exhibits a sharp transition at a characteristic time $`\tau `$: for $`t<\tau `$, the width $`W`$ increases exponentially as $`W\mathrm{exp}(\nu t/\mathrm{}^2)`$, while for $`t>\tau `$, $`W`$ still increases but at a considerably smaller rate than an exponential. The crossover time is given by $`\tau \sigma ^2/fa`$ in terms of the experimental parameters, indicating its dependence on the flux and ion beam energy. Correlating these results with the observed surface morphologies, we find that the QDs first appear at $`t\tau `$. Indeed, in Fig. 3 we marked with arrows the time when the morphologies in Fig. 2a-c were recorded, indicating that no QDs exist before $`\tau `$ (Fig. 2a), but they are fully developed at $`\tau `$ (Fig. 2b), and their uniformity rapidly vanishes after $`\tau `$ (Fig. 2c).

Based on the results presented in Figs. 2 and 3, the following scenario emerges for QD and hole formation. In the early stages of the erosion process the linear theory correctly describes the surface evolution, and thus we observe the cell structure predicted by the BH theory. However, as time increases, the nonlinear terms $`turn`$ $`on`$ breaking the up-down symmetry of the surface. Such delayed effect of the nonlinear terms is a well known feature of the class of surface evolution equations which (3) belongs to . The sign of $`\lambda `$ determines whether QDs or holes form, these structures appearing at a characteristic time $`\tau `$, that depends on the flux and the ion energy, and their characteristic size is given by the ripple period $`\mathrm{}`$ (Eq. (2)). In turn, the sign of $`\lambda `$ is determined only by the shape of the collision cascade (Fig. 1). As time increases beyond $`\tau `$, the nonlinear terms lead to kinetic roughening of the surface at large length scales, and while the QDs and holes do not disappear, the substrate on which they exist becomes rough, destroying the overall island/hole uniformity and ordering. Indeed, as Fig. 3b shows, the island height distribution has a larger width after $`\tau `$ than right at $`\tau `$. Thus, ordered and uniform QDs and holes can be obtained only in the early stages of the nonlinear regime, more precisely, at the crossover between the linear and nonlinear regimes emerging at the characteristic time $`\tau `$.

Experimentally the crossover time $`\tau `$ can be estimated through monitoring the evolution of the ripple amplitude using $`in`$ $`situ`$ spectroscopic techniques. Our results indicate that in order to obtain uniform islands one needs to stop the sputtering process just when the amplitude of the eroded surface saturates: before saturation the QDs have not developed yet, while after saturation their uniformity disappears. Since the mechanism generating the QDs is the ion induced instability, balanced by ion induced diffusion, their typical separation is given by the most unstable wavelength, $`\mathrm{}=2\pi \sqrt{2D/\nu }`$. The simulations indicate that the islands (or holes) first appear as small surface perturbations. However, as their amplitude increases, around $`\tau `$ they get in contact with each other, and their growth saturates. Thus their final diameter coincides with $`\mathrm{}`$. Indeed, we determined the diameter of the QDs in simulations for $`\nu =0.6169`$, $`D=2`$ and $`\lambda =1`$, observing approximately 16 QDs aligned along the side of the system of the size $`256\times 256`$, in agreement with the prediction $`L/\mathrm{}16`$. Using (4) and (5), we find that $`\mathrm{}=\sqrt{2}\pi \mu `$, i.e., from the $`average`$ $`separation`$ of the islands one can $`determine`$ $`the`$ $`size`$ $`of`$ $`the`$ $`horizontal`$ $`width`$ of the collision cascade (Fig. 1a). Furthermore, since typically we have $`\mu aϵ^{2m}`$, when $`ϵ`$ is the ion energy and $`m`$ is an constant that weakly depend on $`ϵ`$ ($`m=1/2`$ for $`ϵ10100`$ keV), we predict that one can tune the size of the QDs by changing the ion energy $`ϵ`$, while the size is independent of the flux and the temperature.

Finally, the conclusion $`\mathrm{}\mu `$ holds only when ion induced effective diffusion  is the main relaxation mechanism. While the temperature independent QD size reported by Facsko $`et`$ $`al.`$  indicates that for GaSb this is the main relaxation mechanism, at high temperatures or in other systems thermal diffusion could be more relevant . Note, however, that the scenario presented above for QD and hole formation, is not conditional on ion induced diffusion. Should thermal diffusion be the dominating relaxation mechanism (certainly true in any system at high temperatures) it will change only our prediction for $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`\tau `$. In this case we expect $`\mathrm{}2\pi \sqrt{2D_0\mathrm{exp}(E/2kT)/\nu }`$, thus the QD size will depend exponentially on $`T`$, and we also have $`\mathrm{}ϵ^{1/2}`$, and $`\mathrm{}f^{1/2}`$. For the crossover time we obtain $`\tau D_0^2\mathrm{exp}(2E/kT)/\nu `$, $`\tau ϵ^1`$, and $`\tau f^1`$. However, the phase diagram (Fig. 1b) and the expected dynamical evolution (Figs. 2 and 3) will not be sensitive to the nature of the relaxation mechanism.

In conclusion, we demonstrated that the nonlinear theory can fully explain the recently observed quantum dots and holes generated by sputter erosion. We showed that these nanostructures appear only when the nonlinear terms become effective, stabilizing the surface amplitude, and that the difference in the islands and holes comes in the sign of the nonlinear terms. Furthermore, we are able to predict the dependence of the characteristic time for QD formation, and find that their saturation size is given by the size of the collision cascade. We believe that these results will lead to a better understanding of the formation and evolution of these fascinating nanostructures, thus they will guide further experiments aiming to better control these systems.

This work was supported by ONR, NSF, and the Korean Research Foundation (Grant No. 99-041-D00150).


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# Untitled Document

Global phase time and path integral

for string cosmological models

Gastón Giribet

Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio

C.C. 67, Sucursal 28 - 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina

E-mail: gaston@iafe.uba.ar

Claudio Simeone

Departamento de Física, Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica

Av. del Libertador 8250 - 1429 Buenos Aires, Argentina

and

Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales

Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria

Pabellón I - 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina

E-mail: simeone@tandar.cnea.gov.ar

A global phase time is identified for homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models yielding from the low energy effective action of closed bosonic string theory. When the Hamiltonian constraint allows for the existence of an intrinsic time, the quantum transition amplitude is obtained by means of the usual path integral procedure for gauge systems.

PACS numbers: 04.60.Kz 04.60.Gw 98.80.Hw

1. Introduction

An essential property of gravitational dynamics is that the canonical Hamiltonian vanishes on the physical trajectories of the system; the constraint $`0`$ reflects that the evolution is given in terms of a parameter $`\tau `$ which does not have physical significance. This leads to a fundamental difference between ordinary quantum mechanics and the quantization of gravitation, because the existence of a unitary quantum theory is related to the possibility of defining the time as an absolute parameter. The identification of a global phase time  can therefore be considered as the previous step before quantization .

In the theory of gravitation the Hamiltonian not only generates the dynamical evolution, but it also acts as a generator of gauge transformations which connect any pair of succesive points on each classical trajectory of the system. While the dynamics is given by a spacelike hypersurface evolving in spacetime, including arbitrary local deformations which yield a multiplicity of times, the same motion can be generated by gauge transformations . It is therefore natural to think that the gauge fixing procedure can be a way to identify a global time.

However, as the action of gravitation is not gauge invariant at the boundaries, this idea could not be used, in principle, to give a direct procedure for deparametrizing minisuperspaces: while ordinary gauge systems admit canonical gauges $`\chi (q^i,p_i,\tau )=0`$, only derivative gauges would be admissible for cosmological models . These gauges cannot define a time in terms of the canonical variables. At the quantum level this has the consequence that the usual path integral for ordinary gauge systems could not be applied.

In the present paper we give a proposal for solving these problems in the case of isotropic and homogeneous cosmological models resulting from the bosonic closed string theory. We define a canonical transformation so that the action of the minisuperspaces is turned into that of an ordinary gauge system ; then we use canonical gauge conditions to identify a global phase time in terms of the canonical variables for most possible values of the parameters characterizing the models. When the Hamiltonian has a potential with a definite sign an intrinsic time $`t(q)`$ is defined, and the quantum transition amplitude for separable models is obtained in the form of a path integral for an ordinary gauge system; the $`\tau `$dependent gauge choice used to identify the time determines the time integration parameter and the observables to be fixed at the end points. Differing from our previous analysis  (which was restricted to simple models within the framework of general relativity), now we also obtain an extrinsic time $`t(q,p)`$ for the models, and, more important, we give a reduction procedure which leads to a conserved true Hamiltonian, thus making more clear the meaning of the quantization.

2. String cosmology models

2.1. Gauge invariant action

The cosmological field equations yielding from the low energy action of string theory show a remarkable T–duality symmetry that appears manifestly in terms of redefinition of the fields. The duality properties of the models make string cosmology very interesting, since it makes possible to propose a pre–big bang phase for the universe . The quantization of string cosmological models has been analyzed in the context of the graceful exit problem (for a detailed discussion see references  and , and references therein), and it has been remarked  that a careful discussion of the subtleties that are typical of the quantization of gauge systems is required. In the present work the formal aspects of the problem are studied, and we give a solution for the models whose Hamilton–Jacobi equation is separable; we show that some results are valid also for more general models.

The massless states of bosonic closed string theory are the dilaton $`\varphi `$, the two-form field $`B_{\mu \nu }`$ and the graviton $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ which fixes the background geometry. The low energy effective action that describes the long-wavelength limit of the massless fields dynamics is (written in Einstein frame)

$$S=\frac{1}{16\pi G_D}d^Dx\sqrt{g}\left(Rce^{2\varphi /(D2)}\frac{1}{(D2)}(\varphi )^2\frac{1}{12}e^{4\varphi /(D2)}(dB)^2\right)$$
(1)
where $`c=\frac{2}{3\alpha ^{}}(D26)`$, being $`\alpha ^{}`$ the Regge slope, and $`dB`$ is the exterior derivative of the field $`B_{\mu \nu }`$. In this paper we consider $`c`$ as an arbitrary real parameter.

The Euler-Lagrange equations yielding from the action (1) admit homogeneous and isotropic solutions in four dimensions . Such solutions present a Friedmann–Robertson–Walker form for the metric, namely

$$ds^2=N^2(\tau )d\tau ^2e^{2\mathrm{\Omega }(\tau )}\left(\frac{dr^2}{1kr^2}+r^2d\theta ^2+r^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\phi ^2\right).$$
(2)
For the dilaton $`\varphi `$ and the field strength $`𝐇=dB`$, the homogeneity and isotropy constraints demand

$$𝐇_{ijk}=\lambda \epsilon _{ijk}\varphi =\varphi (\tau ),$$
(3)
where $`\epsilon _{ijk}`$ is the volume form on the constant-time surfaces and $`\lambda `$ is a real number. The Einstein frame action for this system in four dimensions is given by

$$S=\frac{1}{2}d^4x\sqrt{g}Ne^{3\mathrm{\Omega }}\left[\frac{\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}^2}{N^2}+\frac{\dot{\varphi }^2}{N^2}2ce^\varphi +\delta _{\lambda ,0}ke^{2\mathrm{\Omega }}\delta _{k,0}\lambda ^2e^{6\mathrm{\Omega }2\varphi }\right],$$
(4)
where the $`\delta ^{}s`$ are introduced to consider the cases of a flat model with two-form field different from zero, and a closed or open model with $`𝐇_{\mu \nu \rho }=0`$. If we put the action in the Hamiltonian form

$$S=𝑑\tau \left[\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}+\pi _\varphi \dot{\varphi }N\right]$$
(5)
the canonical Hamiltonian is

$$=\frac{1}{2}e^{3\mathrm{\Omega }}\left(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }^2+\pi _\varphi ^2+2ce^{6\mathrm{\Omega }+\varphi }\delta _{\lambda ,0}ke^{4\mathrm{\Omega }}+\delta _{k,0}\lambda ^2e^{2\varphi }\right)0.$$
(6)
As the constraint is quadratic in the momenta, the action is not gauge invariant at the boundaries of the trajectories ; however, if the Hamilton-Jacobi equation associated with $``$ is separable, the action can be turned into that of an ordinary gauge system by improving it with gauge invariance at the end points . We shall begin by considering the following generic form for the scaled Hamiltonian $`H2e^{3\mathrm{\Omega }}:`$

$$H=\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }^2+\pi _\varphi ^2+4Ae^{n\mathrm{\Omega }+m\varphi }0,$$
(7)
where $`A`$ is an arbitrary real constant and $`mn`$. In general, this Hamiltonian is not separable in terms of the original canonical variables. Then we define

$$x\left(\frac{2}{n+m}\right)e^{(n+m)(\mathrm{\Omega }+\varphi )/2},y\left(\frac{2}{nm}\right)e^{(nm)(\mathrm{\Omega }\varphi )/2}$$
(8)
so that dividing $`H`$ by $`(n^2m^2)xy>0`$ we can define the equivalent constraint

$$H^{}\frac{H}{(n^2m^2)xy}=\pi _x\pi _y+A0.$$
(9)
The solution of the corresponding Hamilton–Jacobi equation $`(W/x)(W/y)+A=E^{}`$ which is obtained by matching the integration constants $`\alpha ,E^{}`$ to the momenta $`\overline{P},\overline{P}_0`$ is

$$W(x,y,\overline{P}_0,\overline{P})=\overline{P}x+y\left(\frac{A\overline{P}_0}{\overline{P}}\right).$$

The solution $`W`$ generates a canonical transformation $`(q^i,p_i)(\overline{Q}^0,\overline{Q},\overline{P}_0,\overline{P})`$ which identifies $`H^{}`$ with $`\overline{P}_0`$. The variables $`(\overline{Q},\overline{P})`$ are conserved observables because $`[\overline{Q},H^{}]=[\overline{P},H^{}]=0`$, so that they would not be appropriate to characterize the dynamical evolution. The function

$$F=P_0\overline{Q}^0+f(\overline{Q},P,\tau )$$
(10)
generates a second transformation in the space of observables $`(\overline{Q},\overline{P})(Q,P)`$, such that the new Hamiltonian $`K=NP_0+f/\tau `$ does not vanish, and $`Q`$ is a non conserved observable because $`[Q,H^{}]=[P,H^{}]=0`$ but $`[Q,K]0`$. For $`Q^0`$ we have $`[Q^0,H^{}]=[Q^0,P_0]=1,`$ and then $`Q^0`$ can be used to fix the gauge . If we choose

$$f=\overline{Q}P+T(\tau )/P$$
(11)
with $`T(\tau )`$ a monotonic function then the new canonical variables are given by

$$P_0=\pi _x\pi _y+A,P=\pi _x,$$

$$Q^0=\frac{y}{P},Q=x\left(\frac{y(AP_0)+T(\tau )}{P^2}\right)$$
(12)
($`P=\pi _x`$ cannot be zero on the constraint surface). The coordinates and momenta $`(Q^i,P_i)`$ describe an ordinary gauge system with a constraint $`P_0=0`$ and a true Hamiltonian $`f/\tau =(1/P)(dT/d\tau )`$ which conmutes with $`K`$. Its action is

$$𝒮[Q^i,P_i,N]=_{\tau _1}^{\tau _2}\left(P\frac{dQ}{d\tau }+P_0\frac{dQ^0}{d\tau }NP_0\frac{1}{P}\frac{dT}{d\tau }\right)𝑑\tau .$$
(13)
If we write $`𝒮`$ in terms of the original variables we must add end point terms  of the form  $`B=\overline{Q}^i\overline{P}_iW+QPf`$ so that

$$𝒮[\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi ,\pi _\mathrm{\Omega },\pi _\varphi ,N]=_{\tau _1}^{\tau _2}\left(\pi _\varphi \frac{d\varphi }{d\tau }+\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }\frac{d\mathrm{\Omega }}{d\tau }N\right)𝑑\tau +B(\tau _2)B(\tau _1),$$
(14)
where

$$B(\tau )=\frac{1}{(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }+\pi _\varphi )}\left[\frac{\pi _\varphi ^2\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }^2+4Ae^{n\mathrm{\Omega }+m\varphi }}{nm}+4Ae^{(n+m)(\mathrm{\Omega }+\varphi )/2}\left(\frac{2e^{(nm)(\mathrm{\Omega }\varphi )/2}}{nm}+\frac{T(\tau )}{A}\right)\right].$$

As $`\pi _x=\overline{P}=(1/2)(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }+\pi _\varphi )e^{(n+m)(\mathrm{\Omega }+\varphi )/2}`$ we can write

$$B(\tau )=Q^0P_02A\left(Q^0\frac{T(\tau )}{A\overline{P}}\right).$$

Under a gauge transformation generated by $``$ we have $`\delta _ϵB=\delta _ϵS`$, so that the action $`𝒮`$ is effectively endowed with gauge invariance over the whole trajectory and canonical gauge conditions are admissible.

2.2. Extrinsic time

A global phase time $`t`$ must verify $`[t,]>0`$ , but as $`=(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi )H^{}=(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi )P_0`$ with $`>0`$, then if $`t`$ is a global phase time we also have $`[t,P_0]>0`$. Because $`[Q^0,P_0]=1`$, an extrinsic time can be identified by imposing a $`\tau `$dependent gauge of the form $`\chi Q^0T(\tau )=0`$ and defining $`tT.`$ We then obtain

$$t(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi ,\pi _\mathrm{\Omega },\pi _\varphi )=Q^0=\frac{4e^{n\mathrm{\Omega }+m\varphi }}{(mn)(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }+\pi _\varphi )}.$$
(15)
Using the constraint equation (7) we can write $`t(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega },\pi _\varphi )=(nm)^1(\pi _\varphi \pi _\mathrm{\Omega })/A.`$ For the scaled constraint $`H=2e^{3\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ with $`k=\lambda =0`$ we have $`4A=2c,n=6,m=1`$. Then the extrinsic time is

$$t(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi ,\pi _\mathrm{\Omega },\pi _\varphi )=\frac{4e^{6\mathrm{\Omega }+\varphi }}{5(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }+\pi _\varphi )}.$$
(16)
We can go back to the constraint $`H`$ with $`k0`$ and evaluate $`[t,H]`$. For an open model ($`k=1`$) a simple calculation gives that $`[t,H]>0`$ for both $`c<0`$ and $`c>0`$. For the case $`k=1`$, instead, an extrinsic global phase time is $`t(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega },\pi _\varphi )=(2/5c)(\pi _\varphi \pi _\mathrm{\Omega })`$ if $`c<0`$.

In the case of the scaled constraint with $`c=k=0`$ we have $`4A=\lambda ^2,n=0,m=2,`$ and the extrinsic time reads

$$t(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi ,\pi _\mathrm{\Omega },\pi _\varphi )=\frac{2e^{2\varphi }}{\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }+\pi _\varphi }.$$
(17)
If we then consider $`c0`$ and we compute the bracket $`[t,H]`$ we find that this is positive definite if $`c<0.`$ Hence the time given by (17) is a global phase time for this case.

2.3. Intrinsic time and path integral

The action (13) can be used to compute the amplitude for the transition $`|Q_1,\tau _1>|Q_2,\tau _2>`$ ($`Q^0`$ is a spurious degree of freedom for the gauge system) by means of a path integral in the form

$$<Q_2,\tau _2|Q_1,\tau _1>=DQ^iDP_iDN\delta (\chi )|[\chi ,P_0]|\mathrm{exp}\left[i_{\tau _1}^{\tau _2}\left(P_i\frac{dQ^i}{d\tau }NP_0\frac{f}{\tau }\right)𝑑\tau \right].$$
(18)
Here $`|[\chi ,P_0]|`$ is the Fadeev-Popov determinant; because the constraint is simply $`P_0=0`$, canonical gauges are admissible. But what we want to obtain is the amplitude $`<q_2^i|q_1^i>`$, so that we should show that both amplitudes are equivalent. This is fulfilled if the paths are weighted in the same way by $`𝒮`$ and $`S`$ and if $`Q`$ and $`\tau `$ define a point in the original configuration space, that is, if a state $`|Q,\tau >`$ is equivalent to $`|q^i>`$. This is true only if there exists a gauge such that $`\tau =\tau (q^i)`$, and such that on the constraint surface the boundary terms in (14) vanish .

The existence of a gauge condition yielding $`\tau =\tau (q^i)`$ is closely related to the existence of an intrinsic time . A (globally good) gauge such that $`\tau =\tau (q^i)`$ should be given by a function $`\chi (q^i,\tau )=0`$ fulfilling $`[\chi ,]0`$, while a function $`t(q^i,p_i)`$ is a global phase time if $`[t,]>0.`$ Because the supermetric $`G^{ik}`$ does not depend on the momenta, a function $`t(q)`$ is a global phase time if the bracket

$$[t(q),]=[t(q),G^{ik}p_ip_k]=2\frac{t}{q^i}G^{ik}p_k$$

is positive definite. For a constraint whose potential can be zero for finite values of the coordinates, the momenta $`p_k`$ can be all equal to zero at a given point, and $`[t(q),]`$ can vanish. Hence an intrinsic time can be identified only if the potential has a definite sign.

On the constraint surface $`H^{}=P_0=0`$ the terms $`B(\tau )`$ clearly vanish in the canonical gauge

$$\chi Q^0\frac{T(\tau )}{A\overline{P}}=0$$
(19)
which is equivalent to $`T(\tau )=2(mn)^1Ae^{(nm)(\mathrm{\Omega }\varphi )/2},`$ and then it defines $`\tau =\tau (\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi ).`$ As $`P=\overline{P}`$ and thus $`Q^0\overline{P}=y(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi )`$, an intrinsic time $`t`$ can be defined as

$$t\frac{\eta T}{2A}$$

if we apropriately choose $`\eta .`$ We have $`[t,H^{}]=(\eta /2)[Q^0\overline{P},P_0]=(\eta /2)\overline{P},`$ and because $`\overline{P}=\pi _x`$ then to ensure that $`t`$ is a global phase time we must choose $`\eta =sign(\pi _x)=sign(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }+\pi _\varphi ).`$

In the case $`A>0`$ it is $`|\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }|>|\pi _\varphi |`$ (so that $`sign(\pi _x)=sign(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega })`$) and the constraint surface splits into two disjoint sheets identified by the sign of $`\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }`$; in the case $`A<0`$ it is $`|\pi _\varphi |>|\pi _\mathrm{\Omega }|`$ and the two sheets of the constraint surface are given by the sign of $`\pi _\varphi .`$ Hence in both cases $`\eta `$ is determined by the sheet of the constraint surface on which the system evolves; we therefore have that for $`A>0`$ the intrinsic time can be written as

$$t(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi )=\left(\frac{1}{mn}\right)sign(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega })e^{(nm)(\mathrm{\Omega }\varphi )/2},$$
(20)
while for $`A<0`$ we have

$$t(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi )=\left(\frac{1}{mn}\right)sign(\pi _\varphi )e^{(nm)(\mathrm{\Omega }\varphi )/2}.$$
(21)
For the constraint with $`k=\lambda =0`$ the intrinsic time is

$$t(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi )=\frac{1}{5}sign(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega })e^{5(\mathrm{\Omega }\varphi )/2}\text{if}c>0,$$

and

$$t(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi )=\frac{1}{5}sign(\pi _\varphi )e^{5(\mathrm{\Omega }\varphi )/2}\text{if}c<0.$$

By evaluating the bracket $`[t,H]`$ for $`H`$ with $`k0`$ we find that the intrinsic time obtained in the case $`c>0`$ is also a time for an open model ($`k=1`$), and the time for $`c<0`$ is a time also for $`k=1.`$

In the case of the constraint with $`c=k=0`$ we obtain

$$t(\mathrm{\Omega },\varphi )=\frac{1}{2}sign(\pi _\mathrm{\Omega })e^{(\mathrm{\Omega }\varphi )},$$

and a simple calculation shows that this is also a global phase time for a more general model with $`c>0.`$

Because we have shown that there is a gauge such that $`\tau =\tau (q^i)`$ and which makes the endpoint terms vanish, we can obtain the amplitude for the transition $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_1,\varphi _1>|\mathrm{\Omega }_2,\varphi _2>`$ by means of a path integral in the variables $`(Q^i,P_i)`$ with the action (13). This integral is gauge invariant, so that we can compute it in any canonical gauge. According to (18), on the constraint surface $`P_0=0`$ and with the gauge choice (19), the transition amplitude is

$$<\varphi _2,\mathrm{\Omega }_2|\varphi _1,\mathrm{\Omega }_1>=DQDP\mathrm{exp}\left[i_{T_1}^{T_2}\left(PdQ\frac{1}{P}dT\right)\right],$$
(22)
where the end points are given by

$$T_a=\left(\frac{2A}{mn}\right)e^{(nm)(\mathrm{\Omega }_a\varphi _a)/2}$$

($`a=1,2`$); because on the constraint surface and in gauge (19) the true degree of freedom reduces to $`Q=x`$, then the boundaries of the paths in phase space are

$$Q_a=\left(\frac{2}{n+m}\right)e^{(n+m)(\mathrm{\Omega }_a+\varphi _a)/2}.$$

For the Hamiltonian with $`\lambda =0`$ and null curvature the end points are given by $`T_a=(c/5)e^{5(\mathrm{\Omega }_a\varphi _a)/2}`$, while $`Q_a=(2/7)e^{7(\mathrm{\Omega }_a+\varphi _a)/2}.`$ In the case of $`c=k=0`$ we have $`T_a=(\lambda ^2/4)e^{(\mathrm{\Omega }_a\varphi _a)}`$ and $`Q_a=e^{(\mathrm{\Omega }_a+\varphi _a)}.`$

After the gauge fixation we have obtained the path integral for a system with one physical degree of freedom. A point to be remarked is that in our previous work  the reduction procedure yielded a true Hamiltonian which was analogous to that of a massless particle with a time dependent potential; such a potential leads to particle creation, so that the meaning of the minisuperspace quantization would not be completely clear. Here, instead, we have avoided this difficulty because we have obtained a true Hamiltonian $`1/P`$ which does not depend on time (see eq. (22)).

3. Discussion

We have been able to use canonical gauge conditions for deparametrizing homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models coming from the low energy dynamics of bosonic closed string theory and, simultaneously, to obtain the quantum transition amplitude in a simple form which clearly shows the separation between true degrees of freedom and time.

We have analized models of two types: 1) models with homogeneous dilaton field and vanishing antisymmetric $`B_{\mu \nu }`$ field ($`\lambda =0`$); 2) models representing flat universes ($`k=0`$) with homogeneous dilaton and non vanishing antisymmetric field. For the cases considered we have been able to identify a global phase time. In the cases $`\lambda =0,k=0,c0`$ and $`\lambda 0,k=0,c=0`$ the Hamiltonian is easily separable and the potential has a definite sign. Thus, an intrinsic time can be found and the quantum transition amplitude is obtained by means of a path integral in the new variables $`(Q^i,P_i)`$ describing an ordinary gauge system. The canonical gauge used to define the time determines the integration parameter and the variables to be fixed at the boundaries.

Once we have found a time $`t`$ for the inmediately separable models, we have identified the extended region of the parameter space where $`t`$ is a global phase time. In fact, a simple prescription can be given to determine whether an extrinsic time for a system described by a given Hamiltonian is also a time for a system described by a more general constraint. We have defined $`H^{}=g^1(q)H`$ with $`g>0`$, and because we matched $`P_0H^{}`$, then $`tQ^0`$ fulfills $`[t,H^{}]=1`$ (and then $`[t,H]=g>0`$ on the surface $`H=0`$). If we consider an extended constraint $`\stackrel{~}{H}=g(q)H^{}+h`$ and we calculate the bracket of $`t`$ with $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ we obtain

$$[t,\stackrel{~}{H}]=g+H^{}[t,g]+[t,h].$$

Using that $`\stackrel{~}{H}0`$ we have that the condition

$$[t,\stackrel{~}{H}]=gg^1h[t,g]+[t,h]>0$$

must hold on the (new) constraint surface if $`t`$ is a time for the system described by $`\stackrel{~}{H}.`$ For the system associated to the constraint (7), from (8) and (9) we have that $`g=4e^{n\mathrm{\Omega }+m\varphi }`$; if we add a term of the form $`h=\alpha e^{r\mathrm{\Omega }+s\varphi }`$ to $`H`$ the condition turns to be

$$\alpha \frac{e^{r\mathrm{\Omega }+s\varphi }}{(\pi _\varphi +\pi _\mathrm{\Omega })^2}\left[\frac{(n+m)(r+s)}{nm}\right]>1.$$

We have restricted our analysis to the formal aspects of minisuperspace quantization. A complete discussion about the limits of such approximation as well as an analysis of the application of our method to the graceful exit problem would require a detailed knowledge of the effective potential for the dilaton. If the effective potential leads to a separable Hamilton–Jacobi equation the application of our procedure would result straightforward. The minisuperspaces that we have quantized admit an intrinsic time; however, an intrinsic time can be defined only if the constraint surface splits into two disjoint sheets. If the complete Hamiltonian including the effective potential is separable but admits only an extrinsic time, the variables to be fixed at the boundaries in the path integral should involve not only the original coordinates but also the momenta; this point would require a further discussion.

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by CONICET and CNEA (Argentina).

References

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# Third-dredge-up oxygen in planetary nebulae Based on observations collected at ESO La Silla, Chile.

## 1 Introduction

It is usually assumed (e.g. Henry henry89 (1989)) that the oxygen abundance of a planetary nebula (PN) reflects the metallicity $`Z`$ of the interstellar medium (ISM) in which the parent star formed, inasmuch as the conversion of 16O into 14N due to advanced CNO processing is unimportant, a condition fulfilled in low-mass stars ($`M<`$ 2 $`M_{}`$). Low-mass stars bring to their surface nitrogen (through first dredge-up), produced by CN-cycle conversion of carbon, and carbon (third dredge-up), produced by 3-$`\alpha `$ fusion along the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB, e.g. Iben & Renzini iberen83 (1983)). During He-burning, 14N is transformed notably into 22Ne and some 12C into 16O. Thus third dredge-up is likely to bring freshly synthesized oxygen to the surface of low-mass stars, as suggested by Boothroyd & Sackmann (boosac88 (1988), here BS88) and, in a preliminary form, by Herwig et al. (herblo00 (2000), here HBD), who invoked intershell dredge-up (“fourth dredge-up”, Iben iben99 (1999)) by diffusive overshoot. Exposed deep layers of hydrogen-deficient post-AGB stars appear to have quite similar concentrations of oxygen and carbon (Koesterke & Hamann koeham97 (1997); Herwig et al. herblo99 (1999)) but the amount of fresh oxygen expelled from AGB stars is unknown. The oxygen abundance is difficult to determine in the atmosphere of evolved stars (e.g. Fulbright & Kraft fulkra99 (1999)) and shows large scatter in PNe of a given galaxy (e.g. Leisy & Dennefeld leiden96 (1996), here LD96).

In order to reveal the oxygen enrichment of PNe, one must seek for circumstances enabling the detection of a small excess of oxygen. Two PNe, He 2-436 and Wray 16-423, were found (Zijlstra & Walsh zijwal96 (1996), here ZW96; Walsh et al. waldud97 (1997)) to belong to the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Ibata et al. ibagil95 (1995)). Spatial and kinematic properties point to a common origin for these PNe. Photoionization models (Dudziak et al. dudpeq00 (2000), here DPZW) indicate nearly identical depletions with respect to solar for all elements beyond nitrogen \[($`0.55\pm 0.07`$) dex\]. Both PN nuclei are early-type \[WC\] stars belonging to nearly the same (H-burning) evolutionary track $`M`$=($`1.2\pm 0.1`$)$`M_{}`$, $`Z`$=0.004 (Vassiliadis & Wood vaswoo94 (1994)), consistent with their precursors being the intermediate-age carbon stars of Sagittarius. As expected, third dredge-up yield was large in these intermediate-$`Z`$ stars (Marigo et al. margir99 (1999)), but even larger in He 2-436. If both stars were born in the same star formation episode with identical abundances, advantage can be taken of their low initial abundances and different third-dredge-up yields to study the influence of this process upon oxygen and other elements by comparison of the respective abundances. Here, unlike the general study of DPZW, emphasis is on abundance ratios and differential effects. Péquignot et al. (peqzij00 (2000)) gave a preliminary account.

## 2 The Sagittarius dwarf galaxy PN models

Spectra of Wray 16-423 and He 2-436 were secured in identical conditions. Their small apparent size led to global spectra of the highest reproducibility and relevance for modeling. The many theoretical line ratios (H i, He i, forbidden multiplets) allowed to check that statistical errors on measured fluxes were realistic, the few discrepancies being indeed similar in both PNe. Thus, in a direct comparison, systematic errors are likely to cancel out.

In the photoionization model analysis of DPZW, the error bars attached to the abundances of these PNe were estimated from comparing two independent codes: they represented, at some ”1$`\sigma `$ level”, the uncertainties left after evaluating the origin of the differences between codes and trying to include systematic errors. Here, only one of the photoionization codes (code NEBU; e.g. Morisset & Péquignot morpeq96 (1996)) is used, considering only the statistical error on line fluxes. Because of the neglect of systematic errors, the intervals are much reduced. Conversely, because of the ”plasticity” allowed by the rather large number of free parameters and the thorough exploration of all possible solutions, the intervals can be enlarged. The abundance ratios, which were not considered in the error analysis of DPZW, are determined with greater accuracy than the individual abundances, as shown below.

Current \[WC\]-atmosphere models are not reliable: in order not to miss solutions because of restrictive assumptions, black-body stars with a discontinuity at the He+ limit were employed as a three-parameter sequence and an equivalence was established with the NLTE model stellar atmosphere (effective temperature $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$), from the grid of Clegg & Middlemass (clemid87 (1987)). Similar free-parameter sets, procedures and convergence criteria were adopted to obtain two-sector models for both PNe. The models matched essentially all line fluxes within 1$`\sigma `$ errors, that is no more than a few percent of line strength for most basic lines. The two discrepancies left, one of them involving \[O i\] and the other one \[Ar iv\]/\[Ar iii\], turned out to be identical for both PNe, suggesting systematic effects.

It was possible to generate several models of each PN satisfying the very strong and numerous observational constraints, as three key line fluxes (C ii 426.7, \[O ii\] 372.6 and \[S ii\] 406.8$`nm`$) were not very accurately determined. Given a $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ for the central star, the model parameters are constrained by imaging and/or radio continuum data and by (accurate) optical line fluxes. A noticeable aspect is the global energy balance. The cooling rate, mainly determined by the unknown C iii\] and C iv UV line fluxes (in addition to \[O iii\]), depends on the carbon abundance, to which C ii is proportional. For Wray 16-423, the computed C ii flux is always in agreement with observation, stronger limitations being brought by other lines. For He 2-436, considering different models with increasing density in the dense sector (an incomplete inner shell), both the \[O iii\]500.7$`nm`$/\[O iii\]436.3$`nm`$ ratio and the \[O iii\]500.7$`nm`$ flux tend to decrease, but can be reconciled with observation by increasing the oxygen and carbon abundances. As free parameters ensure sufficient flexibility, the uniqueness of the solution breaks down and the boundaries of the set of acceptable models (and abundances) are now determined by the C ii flux.

In Fig. 1 are shown for both PNe the ranges of allowed carbon and oxygen abundances versus the $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$’s. Varying $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ makes the predicted \[S ii\] 406.8$`nm`$ and \[O ii\] 372.6$`nm`$ fluxes vary relative to other lines in models. For He 2-436, low or high $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$’s are forbidden as the \[S ii\] or \[O ii\] fluxes become too large. Relaxing somewhat the error bars attached to these lines increases the allowed range of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ without much changing the range of acceptable abundances. As for Wray 16-423, all elements but carbon have abundances virtually independent of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. Low $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$’s (low C abundances) are forbidden by two independent \[S ii\] lines being predicted too weak; high $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$’s by one accurately observed \[S ii\] line becoming too large. Higher $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$’s are also excluded by the fact the He+ discontinuity, constrained by He ii 468.6$`nm`$, would be much larger than in atmosphere models. Also the shape of the model nebula would then deviate from observation.

The oxygen abundances of the He 2-436 models encompass the well defined value of Wray 16-423. Nevertheless oxygen tends to be larger in He 2-436. As a check of this tendency, Wray 16-423 models were run with the oxygen abundance increased by 10%. No satisfactory solution could be found. Re-convergence on all parameters was performed until all lines except \[O iii\] 500.7$`nm`$ and \[O iii\] 436.3$`nm`$ were again satisfactory and the discrepancy on both \[O iii\] line fluxes was reduced to a minimum, typically 5$`\sigma `$. Other elemental abundances increased by 9$`\pm `$1% (except C: 18%). An He 2-436 model of given $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ was then re-converged to a solution, though with the condition that the computed \[O iii\] line fluxes should reproduce the discrepancy met in the previous Wray 16-423 model. In this new He 2-436 model, most abundances were shifted upwards relative to the standard solution by 8$`\pm `$1% (except N: 3% and C: 18%), close to the shift imposed on oxygen in the Wray 16-423 model. This numerical experiment suggests that systematic errors may substantially shift the derived abundances but not influence conclusions based on differences between the two PN models.

Table 1 lists the absolute helium and oxygen abundances by number and other abundances relative to oxygen. For all elements but carbon, the quoted abundance “uncertainty” is obtained by adding linearly the full abundance spread of acceptable models to the 1$`\sigma `$ error of the best determined line (the models were constrained to reproduce this line exactly). Percent differences on abundance ratios and 1$`\sigma `$ error bars (Table 1, col. 4) clearly show that Ne/O, S/O and Ar/O are smaller in He 2-436 than in Wray 16-423 (3.5, 1.8 and 1.4$`\sigma `$ confidence levels respectively, hence 4.2$`\sigma `$ collectively). Given that sulfur and argon are not synthesized in low-mass stars and that neon should hardly be affected either, this very significant trend must be due to a larger oxygen abundance in He 2-436. An explanation involving an abundance fluctuation in the ISM with, e.g., an excess specific to oxygen at the birth place of the parent star of He 2-436 is unlikely, as these stars are twins in most respects (ZW96, DPZW) and the Ne/O ratio is remarkably stable, at $``$ 0.18, in the ISM of even different galaxies (e.g. Henry henry89 (1989)). Thus the most plausible interpretation of the excess is in terms of oxygen production, with the precursor star of He 2-436 having been more efficient than that of Wray 16-423. Since He 2-436 shows a larger carbon excess – the signature of third dredge-up – it is inferred that this process was also able to bring freshly synthesized oxygen to the star surface.

## 3 Discussion

In Table 2 is sketched a possible evolution of the stellar envelope composition, assuming that (1) initial compositions were identical in the Wray 16-423 and He 2-436 stars, (2) sulfur abundance was constant, keeping the value determined for Wray 16-423 within uncertainties (col. 4 of Table 2), and (3) oxygen abundance varied linearly with that of carbon during third dredge-up (cols. 4, 5). Sulfur is preferred to argon as a reference constant-abundance element, in view of the moderate scatter of the sulfur abundance determinations in models and the difficulty met in accounting for the argon ionization (DPZW). Scatter is less for neon, but its nucleogenic status may be less clear-cut and the variation of Ne/O from Wray 16-423 to He 2-436, although significant, is smaller. Reliable sulfur abundances are difficult to obtain in PNe, yet this approach is justified considering that models are based on homogeneous procedures and used only in a differential manner.

Once the sulfur abundance is specified for He 2-436, the range of possible oxygen abundances is narrowed: assuming the errors are independent, S/O (Table 1, col. 3) and S (Table 2, col. 4) imply 23.6 $`<`$ 105$`\times `$(O/H) $`<`$ 28, an interval that excludes the O/H value of Wray 16-423. Owing to the linear increase of S with O in the model results, the minimum O/H is in fact slightly larger (Table 2, col. 5; Fig. 1, shaded areas). Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$O and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$C be the increments by number of the oxygen and carbon abundances due to third dredge-up. Taking into account correlations between C and O in He 2-436 models (Fig. 1: the lowest C goes with the lowest O) and assumption (3) above, the difference in abundances between the two PNe shows that extreme values for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$O/$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$C are 2.4/76=0.03 and 6.8/61=0.11.

The extrapolated main-sequence abundance of oxygen (Table 2, col. 3 or 2), obtained assuming carbon is initially much less abundant than in the PNe, is used only to determine $`Z`$ and relevant initial abundances (see below).

The present result for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$O/$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$C seems to fit with old predictions of BS88 for flash-produced intershell O/C in the region mixed after convection but this may be fortuitous: these stellar models are uncertain, as indicated by Herwig (herwig00 (2000)) who obtained models for intermediate-mass high-$`Z`$ stars using an exponential diffusive overshoot formalism. Based on the same concept, HBD obtained preliminary models for low-$`Z`$ stars, suggesting that surface O/C reaches asymptotically the intershell value, $``$ 1/3. Thus, considering tendencies shown by recent star models, the present coarse estimate would seem to imply that relatively little oxygen should be third-dredged-up. Nonetheless a PN is formed after many ejection episodes and its abundance may be far from reflecting asymptotic values.

By contrast, neon and argon appear constant within uncertainties and the lower abundance of nitrogen in He 2-436 cannot be due to extensive conversion of this element into heavier ones. The initial (Table 2, col. 2) and first-dredge-up (col. 3) helium, carbon and nitrogen abundances are from Boothroyd & Sackmann (boosac99 (1999)) assuming $`M`$=1.2 $`M_{}`$ and $`Z`$=0.004 (in keeping with extrapolated oxygen). Second dredge-up does not occur in low-mass stars, but these authors take into account deep-circulation mixing leading to enhanced 13C/12C, as observed along the red giant branch, and to further conversion of initial carbon into nitrogen. This so-called “Cool Bottom Processing”, sensitive to $`Z`$ and $`M`$, can bring the nitrogen abundance quite close to that of He 2-436 but perhaps not to the larger one of Wray 16-423 (Table 2). Another source of nitrogen is required.

Mixing of 1H with fresh 12C occurs in low-mass AGB stars to produce 13C, s-nuclei etc, but the hydrodynamics involved is not understood (Lattanzio & Frost latfro97 (1997)). It may not be excluded that some 13C can find its way up to the hydrogen shell or that insertion of H-rich pockets into the He/C-rich intershell is, on occasion, efficient enough to allow CN-cycle completion. In this way, low-mass AGB stars could synthesize some 14N from fresh 12C and mimic intermediate-mass stars in which the so-called “Hot Bottom Burning”, together with third dredge-up, is believed to lead to (N-rich) Type I PNe. Within the uncertainties of the definition (Torres-Peimbert & Peimbert torpei97 (1997)), Wray 16-423 would in fact be marginally Type I in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The indication here is that the dredge-up of additional nitrogen was more effective in Wray 16-423, where carbon is less overabundant.

According to BS88, the He/C ratio in the carbon pockets that will be dredged-up levels off rapidly at He/C $``$ 8 by number, compatible with the “observed” third-dredge-up $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$He/$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$C, which lies anywhere between 15 and $`15`$ (Table 2, cols. 4, 5), but not with the large jump of helium between first dredge-up and Wray 16-423. This may suggest, among other possibilities, that the initial helium abundance adopted here for these stars was too small.

Abundances are comparable in the PNe of Sagittarius and LMC (LD96). The abundance scatter in the LMC is likely due to the coexistence of several populations, but Ne/O is expected to be relatively stable, except possibly for differential effects of the kind revealed here. ¿From data of LD96, it is found that log(Ne/O) is –0.61$`\pm `$0.10 and –0.83$`\pm `$0.10 for Type-I and non-Type-I PNe respectively. These determinations bracket the mean H ii-region value, –0.74 (see LD96), and appear marginally different. Assuming that neon best traces the overall LMC evolution, this suggests that oxygen is relatively depleted in Type I, at least as a consequence of second dredge-up in intermediate-mass stars (see also Dopita & Meatheringham, dopmea91 (1991)), but enhanced in non-Type I by third dredge-up in accord with present finding in Sagittarius PNe.

Abundances are lower in the SMC than in the LMC. Nitrogen-rich PNe of the SMC (type $`i`$+I of LD96) are found among extremely low $`Z`$ stars, presumably of low initial mass. Also some halo PNe have N/O $`>`$ 1 (Howard et al. howhen97 (1997)), at variance with the well-known association of Type I PNe with intermediate-mass stars, but maybe another manifestation of what is occuring in Sagittarius: 14N is enhanced by third dredge-up in low-mass AGB stars and, due to a combination of efficiency and titration effect, N/O can reach large values for sufficiently small $`Z`$.

The discussion of the Sagittarius PN models (DPZW) makes it clear that improvement of the critical carbon abundance can be expected from more complete observations (UV, far red). Nevertheless the present results can already provide some constraints on the new generation of models for the evolution of low-mass low-$`Z`$ stars and lead to a re-interpretation of trends shown by PN abundances in low-$`Z`$ environments. The production of oxygen by low-mass stars ($``$ 2$`\times `$10-4$`M_{}`$/star in Sagittarius) may have to be considered in galactic-evolution models.


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# Construction and Testing of a Pixellated CZT Detector and Shield for a Hard X-ray Astronomy Balloon Flight

## 1 INTRODUCTION

It has been more than twenty years since the last all-sky hard X-ray ($`>20`$ keV) survey was performed by the HEAO A-4 instrument. A new survey, performed with a high-sensitivity imaging instrument, is urgently needed. Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) will almost certainly be the detector material that finally makes this new survey a reality. CZT offers far better energy resolution than scintillator detectors such as NaI and CsI, and the use of pixel or strip electrode readouts allows far better spatial resolution. Response up to 600 keV is possible with moderate thicknesses (5 mm) due to the high stopping power of CZT, and no cryogenic cooling is required due to its wide bandgap. Based on these advantages, CZT has already been selected for its first space-based application as a gamma-ray burst monitor on the SWIFT mission. Our Harvard group has been developing more advanced CZT detectors for astronomy applications, motivated by the requirements of a wide-field, all-sky survey telescope operating between $`10`$ and 600 keV. Specifically, we have focused on the EXIST or EXIST-LITE concepts as our baseline.

Before such instruments can be constructed, several technical issues remain to be addressed. Only the coded-aperture technique allows imaging between 100 keV and 600 keV, and this requires large-area, position-sensitive detectors that are subject to large background levels. For a sensitivity of $`0.05`$ mCrab, as baselined for EXIST on the International Space Station, approximately 8 m2 of CZT are required. Large fields of view ($`40^{}`$ for each module of EXIST) are needed to conduct a survey over the entire sky, further increasing background and requiring large (1–2 mm) pixels to avoid projection effects in thick detectors. Large pixels have increased leakage current noise, and this must be reduced to allow high bias voltages for complete charge collection. The highest resistivity CZT available is high-pressure Bridgman (HPB) material. While detectors made of HPB CZT have low leakage current, they can at present only be made 10 mm $`\times `$ 10 mm in size with a reasonable yield, making the construction of square meter detector planes a technical challenge. Recently IMARAD Imaging Systems began producing CZT using a modified horizontal Bridgman (HB) process which allows the growth of larger crystals (40 mm $`\times `$ 40 mm) at higher yield and thus lower cost. IMARAD CZT also appears to be more uniform than HPB material which, if confirmed, makes it more suitable for large area arrays since inter-pixel calibration is less demanding. The HB CZT has a lower resistivity, however, and thus higher leakage current. We have found that appropriate contact material can reduce the leakage current in HB detectors to levels comparable to HPB material; in particular, simple gold electrodes on IMARAD CZT act as blocking contacts and significantly reduce leakage current noise.

Thus the main challenges to be addressed at present are: find a way to package small detectors that will allow them to be tiled into large arrays with a minimum of dead space; find appropriate contact materials to reduce leakage current enough to allow the use of lower-cost material; read out and process signals from thousands of pixels using low-noise ASICs that do not take up additional space; and find optimal shielding techniques to minimize the background in CZT in the high-radiation environment of low earth orbit with a minimum of mass and complexity. We have constructed a balloon experiment to test methods of meeting these challenges and to measure the spectrum and uniformity of the background generated in an imaging CZT detector. The motivation and basic design of this experiment have been described previously. The completed instrument was taken to Ft. Sumner, NM in May 2000 for a balloon flight on the joint Harvard-MSFC EXITE2/HERO payload. We did not receive a flight opportunity and are currently scheduled to fly in September 2000. In this paper, therefore, we describe the completed instrument and its performance in detail and present preliminary simulations of its response and the flight background expected.

## 2 Description of the Imaging CZT Experiment

The heart of the Harvard imaging CZT experiment is the tiled “array” of flip-chip-mounted pixellated detectors. This array consists of two moderately thick (10 mm $`\times `$ 10 mm $`\times `$ 5 mm) crystals, one made of HPB CZT provided by eV Products and one made of HB CZT provided by IMARAD. These crystals were fashioned into detectors with gold contacts by RMD, Inc. using a direct shadow mask and evaporator technique. Gold contacts were selected for both crystals in order to make a well-understood ohmic detector out of the eV Products material and because we have found that gold contacts on IMARAD material act as blocking contacts and greatly reduce leakage current.

The pixel layout and tiling configuration is shown in Figure 1, along with the design of the detector carrier card. Each detector was made with a $`4\times 4`$ array of pixels on a 2.5 mm pitch with 150 $`\mu `$m gaps, surrounded by a guard ring. The inner pixels were made 2.35 mm across, while the edge and corner pixels were made slightly smaller so that the 2.5 mm pitch could be preserved when the detectors were mounted side-by-side (Figure 1).

Both detectors were tested using a pogo pin and eV Products preamp prior to flip-chip mounting.

Figure 2 shows the 32 spectra recorded in this manner using a 57Co source. The top 16 spectra are from the IMARAD detector and the bottom 16 from the eV Products detector; the plots are arranged in the order of the pixels when both detectors are mounted. Data were taken from each pixel individually; the integration times were not identical and the detector had to be repositioned between each run, so the illumination was not uniform. The spectra are generally quite good, except for areas of material defects in the lower right corners of both detectors.

The two CZT detectors were mounted in a flip-chip fashion on a ceramic carrier board by HyComp, Inc. The carrier card was made with a $`4\times 8`$ array of gold pixel pads on a 2.5 mm pitch, with traces running from each pad to pins on the edge (Figure 1). Additional pads were included to ground the guard rings and bring high voltage onto the card. A gold wire bond bump ($`100`$ $`\mu `$m across) was attached to each pad and coined flat. Conductive epoxy was applied to the pads with a stencil and the detectors were aligned and mounted. After the conductive epoxy had cured a non-conductive epoxy underfill was injected under the detectors to provide mechanical strength.

In Figure 4 we show the assembled flip-chip CZT detector mounted on its carrier card. Negative high voltage is applied via the two thin wires epoxied to the gold cathodes.

An second identical flip-chip detector was manufactured for us by HyComp using additional IMARAD and eV Products CZT crystals. The raw CZT material was of slightly higher quality in this second detector; however, after assembly we found that several IMARAD pixels were partially shorted to the high voltage input. As this would endanger the readout electronics, we have not proceeded with testing this detector. We report here only results for the first detector, which we will fly in September.

Both detectors are read out by a self-triggering, 32-channel VA-TA ASIC supplied by IDE AS Corp. in Norway. The CZT detector card plugs directly into a custom-designed VA-TA carrier board, as shown in Figure 4. The ASIC is read out by a commercial data acquisition (DAQ) board also supplied by IDE. This VA-DAQ board is in turn controlled by a PC/104 single-board computer running DOS software adapted by us from IDE-supplied Labview code. This code allows us to set the trigger threshold and to mask out noisy channels. The VA-TA card is a preliminary design made for our test balloon flight only; it is not suitable for our final survey telescope due to its large area and long lead lengths between detector and ASIC.

The fully-assembled CZT experiment is shown in its pressure vessel in Figure 5.

The detectors are visible slightly above center. They are surrounded by a passive Pb/Sn/Cu collimator which is in turn surrounded by plastic scintillator read out by miniature PMTs (Hamamatsu R7400U, 1.5 cm diameter). The collimator provides a $`40^{}\times 40^{}`$ field of view, and the plastic scintillator will veto local gamma-rays produced in the passive material by cosmic ray interactions. A similar rear shield, not visible, sits below the CZT. (Further details of the shielding configuration have been described by us previously.) The VA-TA card is enclosed in a thin aluminum shield box to isolate it electrically from the rest of the hardware; we have found that the ASIC is extremely susceptible to ground loop and pickup noise. At the bottom of the figure is the PC/104 computer that controls the data acquisition, reading out all 32 channels for each trigger. The PC/104 stack includes an analog/digital I/O card (DM5408) that allows the computer to set thresholds for the PMTs, switch the CZT and PMT high voltage on and off, and monitor coincident CZT and plastic shield events. The coincidence electronics are enclosed in the box at left. Computer and other electronic power is distributed in the boxes on the right. Not visible is the compact high voltage supply (C12N) provided by EMCO High Voltage Corp. Normal operating bias for the CZT detectors is -500 V. The ASIC and high voltage supply are powered by isolated batteries, which we have found to be critical for low-noise operation. A temperature sensor is included and read out by the PC/104. In normal operating mode the PC/104 collects events for one second, recording all 32 channels and the plastic shield flags for each event, and packages them into a buffer with the housekeeping data. These buffers are sent out to the main EXITE2/HERO data stream via the serial port. We are limited by overall balloon system throughput requirements to 50 CZT events per buffer.

## 3 CZT Detector Testing and Data Analysis

The leakage current was measured as a function of bias voltage for both detectors for each pixel. The voltage was varied between -600 V and +200 V. It was immediately obvious that three pixels on the IMARAD detector were shorted to ground. The pins connected to these pixels were lifted so as not to connect to the ASIC. It is not clear why this happened only on the IMARAD side; we suspect that the non-conductive underfill epoxy reacted differently with the IMARAD material than with the eV Products material, perhaps creating a conducting oxide layer that led to shorts. The leakage current on the other pixels was fairly uniform, with values of $``$ 1–2 nA per pixel at -500 V for both detectors.

Calibration spectra were taken by fully illuminating both detectors simultaneously using 241Am and 57Co sources. The ASIC trigger threshold was set at $`30`$ keV. We discovered that two channels on the eV Products detector were dead, and that six additional IMARAD pixels were too noisy to use with our 50 cts buffer-1 limitation. These pixels were mostly on the far side of the IMARAD detector from the VA-TA chips and therefore had the longest traces on the VA-TA card. We masked these channels out.

The spectra in the remaining 21 channels were acceptable, but could be greatly improved through simple data post-processing. The spectral degradation was due to charge-sharing between pixels for events that occurred near pixel boundaries. Since our pixels are quite large, charge is only shared between two pixels in most cases. We therefore adopted the following procedure: 1) We first performed a rough energy calibration on each channel using the 60 keV line from 241Am and 122 keV line from 57Co. 2) For each event, we found the channel containing the largest pulse height. The photon presumably interacted in this pixel. 3) We searched the surrounding 4 “nearest neighbor” pixels for the maximum pulse height. This is the pixel into which charge may have been shared. 4) The pulse height from the neighbor pixel is adjusted by the relative gain and offset and added to the pulse height of the central pixel. Thus each event is corrected for charge loss due to sharing between pixels.

The improvement in our 57Co spectra due to our data processing is shown in Figure 6.

Both an IMARAD HB CZT pixel and an eV Products HPB CZT pixel are shown. The raw spectrum is shown by the dotted line, and the corrected spectrum by the solid line. In both cases the energy resolution $`E_{res}`$ improves dramatically: from 15.6% to 10.2% on the IMARAD pixel and from 8.9% to 5.2% on the eV Products pixel. Charge sharing between pixels is clearly an important effect even with large 2.35 mm pixels.

The corrected 57Co spectra for all working pixels are shown in Figure 7.

The spectra are arranged so that the ASIC would sit at the bottom of the figure. It is apparent that the noisy IMARAD pixels are located on the far side of the detector from the ASIC and so suffer from long lead lengths. Our final intended detector-ASIC coupling scheme would eliminate this problem by placing the ASIC inputs directly below the pixels. The remaining IMARAD channels happen to correspond to those pixels with poor material qualities, as shown in Figure 2, with the exception of one good pixel on the left edge. Thus the average of the energy resolution values on the IMARAD detector, with its standard deviation, is $`\overline{E}_{res}=(16\pm 9)`$%, comparable to scintillator detectors.

The spectra on the eV Products side of the detector are quite good. The variations in the number of counts are due partly to material variations and partly to uneven illumination from the narrow beam of our 57Co source. The average energy resolution on the eV Products detector is $`\overline{E}_{res}=(7.3\pm 2.8)`$%; this number drops to $`\overline{E}_{res}=(6.7\pm 1.2)`$% if the lower right pixel, shown in Figure 2 to be bad, is excluded. These spectra are the best that we have seen published from a CZT detector, read out by an ASIC, in a fully flight-ready configuration.

## 4 Detector Simulations and Predicted Background

We have carried out preliminary simulations of the tiled CZT detector to determine its response and predict the expected flight background spectrum and uniformity. These simulations were performed in two parts. First, the propagation of X-ray photons in the experiment materials and their interaction in the detector were simulated using MGEANT. MGEANT is an improved user interface to the CERN Program Library Monte Carlo simulation package GEANT, allowing the easy specification of detector materials and geometry as well as the input particle spectrum and distribution. For every event interacting in the CZT the energy deposited and the location were recorded. All relevant physical processes, including photoelectric absorption, Compton scattering, and pair production, were included.

Second, the charge transport and signal induction on the pixels were calculated. We followed a procedure similar to that given by Kalemci et al. First the electric field $`\stackrel{}{E}`$ and weighting potential $`W_{pot}`$ were calculated for our pixel geometry using the commercial electrostatics program ES3. The electric field calculation assumed 500 V on the cathode and 0 V on the pixels, while the weighting potential calculation assumed a potential of 1 on the pixel of interest and 0 on all other electrodes. The values of $`\stackrel{}{E}`$ and $`W_{pot}`$ were calculated on a 5 $`\mu `$m grid. We used only a two-dimensional slice through the center of an inner pixel for the present simulations; the interaction positions given by MGEANT were therefore collapsed into two dimensions. Charges were then propagated along the grid one step at a time, according to the components $`E_z`$ and $`E_x`$ of the electric field. For each step the charge $`Q_{ind}`$ induced on the pixel is given by the incremental change in the weighting potential:

$$Q_{ind}=Q_{drift}\times \mathrm{\Delta }W_{pot},$$
(1)
where $`Q_{drift}`$ is the total of the charges drifting along $`\stackrel{}{E}`$. The number of drifting charges will gradually decrease due to trapping. We employed a simple exponential expression to describe the amount of charge $`Q_{drift}^{}`$ that arrives at each point in the grid due to trapping at the previous point:

$$Q_{drift}^{}=Q_{drift}e^{L_{drift}/L_{trap}},$$
(2)
where $`L_{drift}`$ is the distance drifted between grid points and the trapping length $`L_{trap}`$ is given by

$$L_{trap}=\mu \tau (E_x^2+E_z^2)^{1/2},$$
(3)
where $`\mu \tau `$ is the product of the charge carrier mobility and lifetime. The charge clouds were assumed to be points with no diffusion. Each cloud was followed until it reached an electrode and the total induced charge for that event was tabulated. The resulting histogram of detector pulse heights was finally convolved with a gaussian to simulate electronic noise.

We first used MGEANT to illuminate the CZT detectors with a simulated 57Co spectrum to compare with our calibration data. Both recorded and simulated spectra were fit with a combination of a gaussian photopeak and an exponential tail to determine $`E_{res}`$ and the photopeak efficiency. The photopeak efficiency is defined as the ratio of the photopeak counts to the total counts within a range around the gaussian center from $`4\sigma `$ to $`+2.35\sigma `$. The electron mobility-lifetime product $`\mu _e\tau _e`$ has been well-measured in HPB CZT, and we fixed this quantity at a typical value of $`3\times 10^3`$ cm2 V-1. (Our previous work indicates similar $`\mu _e\tau _e`$ values in IMARAD material.) The hole mobility-lifetime product $`\mu _h\tau _h`$ and convolving gaussian width $`\sigma `$ at 122 keV were then adjusted to generate the best match in energy resolution and photopeak efficiency to the recorded data. We found the best agreement for values of $`\mu _h\tau _h=10^6`$ cm2 V-1 and $`\sigma =2.5`$ keV. This value of $`\mu _h\tau _h`$ is somewhat lower than typical values found in the literature.

In Figure 8 we show the corrected 57Co spectrum recorded from an inner pixel of the eV Products HPB detector together with our simulated 57Co spectrum using these parameters. The recorded spectrum has an energy resolution of 7.3% and a photopeak efficiency of 84%. The simulated spectrum has an energy resolution of 7.6% and a photopeak efficiency of 75%. It is obvious that the photopeak is accurately reproduced, but not the tail, which in the real data extends to lower energies with a flatter slope. This could be due to additional trapping in the corners of the pixel, which is not included in our two-dimensional model. Assuming that the average electron-hole pair creation energy is 4.6 eV, the 2.5 keV gaussian width corresponds to an equivalent noise of $`540`$ $`e^{}`$, compared to the 300 $`e^{}`$ noise that the VA-TA system should provide under ideal conditions. The difference is likely due to capacitance effects from the long lead lengths.

Using the parameters given above for the CZT detector response, we have simulated the expected background spectrum in one inner pixel at our planned balloon float altitude, corresponding to 3.5 g cm-2 residual atmosphere. A model of the aluminum pressure vessel and internal hardware was created using MGEANT, along with the Pb/Sn/Cu passive collimator and shield. The pressure vessel was irradiated with the measured atmospheric gamma-ray spectrum between 20 keV and 10 MeV, assumed here to be isotropic.

The resulting spectrum in one pixel of the CZT is shown in Figure 10. This spectrum represents a best case, assuming that the plastic scintillator shields veto all local gamma-ray production from charged particles. The spectrum has been convolved with a gaussian whose width varies according to $`\sigma =2.5(E/122\mathrm{k}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^{1/2}`$ keV. The background level at 100 keV is $`3.6\times 10^3`$ cts cm-2 s-1 keV-1.

For comparison, we have plotted in Figure 10 the predicted background together with the results of several CZT balloon experiments. Since most previous balloon flights have involved 2 mm thick detectors, we plot the backgrounds per detector volume. Several experiments used only passive shielding: the first flight of the Goddard Space Flight Center experiment PoRTIA, with 2 mm Pb shielding around a 25.4 mm $`\times `$ 25.4 mm $`\times `$ 1.9 mm detector and a $`5^{}`$ field of view, the Caltech CZT detector flown on the GRIP-2 payload, with 9 mm of graded Pb, Sn, and Cu completely shielding a 10 mm $`\times `$ 10 mm $`\times `$ 2 mm detector, and the first flight of the Washington University, St. Louis and University of California-San Diego (WUSTL/UCSD) cross-strip detector, with 2 mm of graded Pb, Sn, and Cu completely surrounding a 12 mm $`\times `$ 12 mm $`\times `$ 2 mm employing orthogonal strips electrodes for readout. The backgrounds recorded by these experiments are all higher than that expected from our tiled CZT detectors, due mainly to the local production of gamma-rays in the passive shielding by cosmic-ray interactions. Other previous experiments have used partial active shielding: the second flight of PoRTIA, in which the detector was placed on top of a large NaI crystal (now with a 10 field of view), the second flight of the WUSTL/UCSD detector, which employed a 2 mm Pb/Sn/Cu collimator with a 20 field of view and a rear CsI shield, and our previous CZT experiment flown on EXITE2, which completely enclosed a 10 mm $`\times `$ 10 mm $`\times `$ 2 mm CZT detector in 4 mm of Pb/Sn/Cu in the front and a thick BGO shield in the rear. The active/passive WUSTL/UCSD and EXITE2 CZT/BGO background levels are comparable to the predicted tiled detector background, though lower at low energies due to their smaller fields of view. It is not clear why the active/passive PoRTIA spectrum is still so high; perhaps the solid angle subtended by the NaI shield was not sufficient to veto local gammas. The previous experiments clearly demonstrate that at least partial active shielding is required to achieve low background levels. The second WUSTL/USCD flight showed in addition that most of the background reduction was achieved with the active shield threshold set near 10 MeV, appropriate for rejecting charged particles. This implies that CZT internal gamma-ray background is of secondary importance, and that our plastic shielding scheme should indeed produce the background level predicted. We will be able to test this hypothesis on our September flight: we are re-flying the CZT/BGO detector alongside the tiled detectors to compare shielding configurations, and will take data with the BGO threshold set near 50 keV (to veto gamma-rays) and near 1 MeV (to veto charged particles only) to see if the gamma-ray rejection is needed.

The expected uniformity of the flight background as given by the MGEANT simulation is shown in Figure 11. We plot here the total counts recorded in each pixel. As might be expected, the background level in the inner pixels is generally lower due to shielding from the outer pixels; this difference is only about 10% on average however, and the significance is only $`1\sigma `$.

## 5 Conclusions and Future Work

We have constructed an imaging CZT detector that demonstrates a number of the techniques required for a hard X-ray survey telescope such as that needed for EXIST. These techniques include the use of thick pixellated detectors with blocking contacts, flip-chip mounting, tiled detector geometry, ASIC readout, and shielding. The spectra recorded by the eV Products detector, on the short-lead-length side of the detector array, are the best we have seen for a CZT detector read out by an ASIC in a flight-ready configuration. Our immediate goal is to finally fly this experiment on the EXITE2/HERO balloon payload from Ft. Sumner, NM in September 2000. Our future work will include the design of an optimized ASIC and coupling scheme to minimize lead lengths (ideally coupling the ASIC directly to the CZT pixels), the improvement of our flip-chip processing, and the refinement of our detector simulations to include three-dimensions and more complicated trapping-detrapping effects. Using what we learn from the September flight we will begin the development of EXIST-LITE, a proposed ultra-long-duration balloon hard X-ray telescope employing $`1`$ m2 of CZT to conduct a preliminary survey of half the sky.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank S. Sansone and L. Knowles for machining work and J. Gomes, G. Nystrom, and F. Licata for engineering assistance. We also thank K. Shah and P. Bennett at RMD, Inc. for their assistance in fabricating the detectors and G. Riley at HyComp, Inc. for his help in the flip-chip processing. We especially thank B. Sundal at IDE AS for extensive help with the VA-DAQ system. This work was supported in part by NASA grants NAG5-5103 and NAG5-5209. P. Bloser acknowledges partial support from NASA GSRP grant NGT5-50020.