Displacement damage in Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon p-i-n diodes and
charge selective contacts detectors
Abstract
Hydrogenated amorphous silicon is a well known detector material for its
radiation resistance. This study concern 10 µm thickness, p-i-n and
charge selective contacts planar diode detectors which were irradiated
with neutrons at two fluence values: 1016 neq/cm2 and 5 x 1016 neq/cm2.
In order to evaluate their radiation resistance, detector leakage
current and response to X-ray photons have been measured. The effect of
annealing for performance recovery at 100°C for 12 and 24 hours has also
been studied. The results for the 1016 neq/cm2 irradiation show a factor
2 increase in leakage current that is completely recovered after
annealing for p-i-n devices while charge selective contacts devices show
an overall decrease of the leakage current at the end of the annealing
process compared to the measurement before the irradiation. X-ray
dosimetric sensitivity degrades, for this fluence, at the end of
irradiation but partially recovers for charge selective contacts devices
and increases for p-i-n devices at the end of the annealing process.
Concerning the 5 x 1016 neq/cm2 irradiation test (for p-i-n structures
only), due to the activation that occurred during the irradiation phase,
the results were taken after 146 days of storage at around 0° C, during
this period, a self-annealing effect may have occurred. Therefore the
results after annealing show a small but noticeable degradation in
leakage current and x-ray sensitivity, after irradiation and storage.