Evidence for compensation in a Si hadron calorimeter

The authors present results of measurements performed at the CERN Proton Synchrotron with a hadron Si/(Fe,Pb) calorimeter. In the hadron sampling calorimeter with silicon readout, a combination of plates of low-Z (Fe) and high-Z (Pb) materials used as absorbers enables the reduction of the calorimeter response to the electromagnetic component of the incoming hadronic showers. As a result, a ratio, varying from e/π>1 to e/π<1, is obtained as a function of the high-Z material thickness, demonstrating the possibility of achieving the compensation condition (e/π=1)