Silicon Detectors Highly Compensated by Neutron Induced Deep Levels for Low Energy X-RAY Detection

Abstract

ABSTRACTFast neutron radiation damage in silicon results in defect levels which are predominantly acceptor-like at low fluences and may be used to compensate high resistivity ntype material to create very high effective resisitivity material. Compensated material to the order of Neff below 1011/cm3 enables depletion of diode thicknesses ≥ 1mm at reasonable biases (<100V), yielding diodes of reasonable area and capacitance<1 pF which are suitable for low noise applications such as X-ray spectrometry. Although exposure to fluences of this order will greatly increase the generation current and require cooling, most high resolution X-ray spectrometry systems are routinely operated at reduced temperature to achieve low noise operation of the front end electronics. Silicon p+ /n− /n+ implanted devices (area ≤0.25 cm2) made on high resistivity FZ silicon have been irradiated by 1 MeV neutrons to fluences of a few times 1012 n/cm2. Thick n− substrates (d=630 μm and 1000 μm) were used to achieve detector capacitances εεo/d in the range of 1 pF. After a neutron fluence of ϕn=2.9×1012 n/cm2, the total depletion of a p+/n−/n+ detector, 1040 μm thick and an area of 0.1 cm2, is reached at about V=50 Volts, with a Cd of 1 pF and a neutron induced leakage current of about 300 nA at room temperature. A total depletion of an 680 μm thick detector was reached after the fluence of 2-5×1012 n/cm2 at a voltage of 20 volts, and the capacitance of a 0.25 cm2 diode is 4.5 pF The resistivities of the compensated detector substrates are in the range of 100 K Ω-cm, and are not inverted to “p” type. The trapping of collected charge by neutron induced deep levels is modeled and simulated, and is found to be less than a few percent; with no obvious effect on peak shape. Using a resistive feedback preamplifier of modest noise contribution (225 eV), resolution of the Mn K∝ X-ray was 255 eV (FWHM) with 3 μsec shaping time constants. Other effects of uncollected charge will be discussed and comparisons between this type of detectors and Li-drift silicon detectors will be made.