THE DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMANCE OF THE ALEPH SILICON VERTEX DETECTOR

The ALEPH silicon vertex detector is the first detector operating in a colliding beam environment that uses silicon strip detectors which pr ovide readout on both sides and hence a three-dimensional point measur ement for the trajectory of charged particles. The detector system was commissioned successfully at the e(+)e(-) collider LEP at the researc h centre CERN, Switzerland, during the year 1991 while taking data at the Z(0) resonance. The achieved spatial resolution of the complete 73 728 channel device (intrinsic plus alignment) is 12 mu m in the r-phi view and 12 mu m in the z view. The design and construction of the ent ire detector system are discussed in detail and the experience gained in running the detector will be described with special emphasis on the uses of this novel tracking device for the physics of short-lived hea vy particles produced in the decays of the Z(0) resonance.