Performance of 4H–SiC radiation detector after high flux proton and Fe13+ heavy ion beam irradiation

Abstract

A batch of Schottky diode 4H–SiC detectors was fabricated by using Ni/Au electrodes, which were irradiated by Fe13+ heavy ion beam current with a flux of 1 × 1013 n/cm2 to 4.35 × 1014 n/cm2 in a stepwise increment, the forward and reverse I–V characteristics before and after irradiation as well as the energy resolution of α particles produced by 241Am source were tested and compared. The test results show that the reverse leakage current of the 4H–SiC detector that we made after the radiation of Fe13+ heavy ion beam increases gradually with the increase of the irradiation flux, Schottky Barrier Height decreases continuously where the ideal factor gradually increases. When the flux is 4 × 1013 n/cm2, it has risen to 9 μA, but the detector still has an energy resolution of 2.63%. When the flux of Fe13+ heavy ion beam is increased to 8 × 1013 n/cm2, the very obvious degradation phenomenon appears, the Charge Collection Efficiency(CCE) is reduced from 100% to 66.08%, the energy resolution is changed from 1.6% to 4.33%. When flux is increased to 1.4 × 1014 n/cm2, and the detector's performance has degraded seriously, in which the energy resolution is decreased from 1.76% to 9.54%, meanwhile the CCE is reduced from 100% to 64.84%, but it can still be used. As the beam flux reaches 2 × 1014 n/cm2, the detector has been completely damaged. At the same time, the ability of the detector to be resist mixed ion beam irradiation was tested. The 4H–SiC detector still has an energy resolution of 2.51% after receiving a dose of irradiation, which concluded with 1 × 1017 n/cm2 protons and 2 × 1013 n/cm2 Fe13+ heavy ion beams.