Interactions of Low-Energy Muons with Silicon: Numerical Simulation of Negative Muon Capture and Prospects for Soft Errors

Abstract

In this paper, the interactions of low-energy muons (E < 10 MeV) with natural silicon, the basic material of microelectronics, are studied by Geant4 and SRIM simulation. The study is circumscribed to muons susceptible to slowdown/stop in the target and able to transfer sufficient energy to the semiconductor to create single events in silicon devices or related circuits. The capture of negative muons by silicon atoms is of particular interest, as the resulting nucleus evaporation and its effects can be catastrophic in terms of the emission of secondary ionizing particles ranging from protons to aluminum ions. We investigate in detail these different nuclear capture reactions in silicon and quantitatively evaluate their relative importance in terms of number of products, energy, linear energy transfer, and range distributions, as well as in terms of charge creation in silicon. Finally, consequences in the domain of soft errors in microelectronics are discussed.