Design and performance of the new CCD vertex detector at SLD and implications for the next linear collider

During 1996, the SLD Collaboration completed construction and began operation of a new charge-coupled device (CCD) vertex detector (VXD3) with 3.07×108 pixels. This upgrade improved the capabilities of the SLD detector to measure the polarization-enhanced forward–backward asymmetry for b- and c-quarks and the b-fraction in hadronic Z decays and opened the possibility to observe Bs0-mixing. Full separation of primary, secondary and tertiary vertices is accessible. This technique should play an important role in exploiting the physics opportunities at the next linear collider.