Trapping in defect states as a source of the pulse height defect in silicon surface barrier detectors

Abstract

The evidence from charge collection efficiency measurements is considered in the light of the various processes which limit the speed of transient response in silicon surface barrier detectors. This establishes that trapping is predominantly responsible for the apparent inefficiency of the charge collection process. A method of measuring the energy difference between a trapping level and the edge of the appropriate vacant energy band was devised in terms of a simple theoretical model. In the case of a detector for which this model was suitably accurate, this energy difference was 0.23 eV.