Influence of α-particles irradiation on the properties and performance of silicon semiconductor detectors

Abstract

Abstract Deterioration of the operation parameters of p-type Si surface-barrier detector and Si(Li) p-i-n detector upon irradiation by alpha-particles was investigated. The detectors were irradiated at room temperature up to a total number of the registered α-particles Nα equal to 6 × 109. Prolonged irradiation has resulted in a deterioration of the detectors energy resolution ability and it was found that the increase of α-peaks broadening can be described by a linear function of Nα with a slope Δσ/ΔNα ∼ (1.4–1.8) × 10–9 keV/α for both detectors. Resolution deterioration was associated with the increase of the detectors leakage current, which proceeds linearly with the number of absorbed α-particles with the slope ΔI/ΔNα ∼ (7-17) × 10-17 A/α. The increase of the detectors reverse current was related with appearance of radiation-induced defect level at 0.56 eV above the valence band.