Dark current mechanisms in stabilized amorphous selenium based n-i detectors for x-ray imaging applications

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The dark current behavior under operating bias is one of the important selection criteria for an x-ray photoconductor to be usable in a practical x-ray image detector. The authors have developed an analytical model for describing the transient and steady-state behavior of dark current in n-i-type amorphous selenium (a-Se) detectors by considering carrier injections from the metal contacts and thermally generated carriers. It has been found that the thermal generation current is almost two orders of magnitude smaller than the total steady-state dark current in n-i-type a-Se detectors. The main source of dark current is the injection of holes from the metal/n-layer interface which is described by the diffusion theory. The hole injection from the metal depends on the blocking layer (n-layer) thickness, the concentration of trap centers in the blocking layer, the characteristic carrier release time, and the effective barrier height. The fitting of the first principles model with the experimental results estimates the concentration of deep hole trap center in the n-layer, the trap depth from the valence band edge, and the effective barrier heights for the injecting carriers. The electron injection varies with the work function of the contact metal.