Work

Defects and acceptor removal in 60Co γ -irradiated p-type silicon

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Boron-doped silicon detectors used in high radiation environments like the future HL-LHC show a degradation in device performance due to the radiation induced deactivation of the active boron dopant. This effect, known as the so-called Acceptor Removal Effect (ARE), depends on particle type, particle energy and radiation dose and is usually explained by the formation of boron-interstitial - oxygen-interstitial (B i O i ) defects that induce a donor-type defect level in the upper part of the Si band gap. Here we present defect characterization studies using Thermally Stimulated Current technique (TSC) and Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) on a set of epitaxially grown p -type silicon diodes of different resistivity, irradiated with 60 Co γ -rays. We used the defect parameters (activation energy, charge carrier capture cross sections and defect concentration) obtained from DLTS experiments for modeling the corresponding TSC spectra, and subsequently compared those with the experimental TSC results. This approach shows that the di-vacancy which is well characterized by DLTS correlates with the so-far unspecified charge emission signal of the X-defect that partially overlaps with the B i O i peak in TSC spectra. Additionally, in order to evaluate the impact of B i O i defect formation on the macroscopic properties of the device, we compared the B i O i defect concentration with the change in the effective carrier concentration N eff obtained from C-V measurements. It shows that the variations in N eff are about twice the changes in the B i O i concentration, which corroborate the assumption of boron deactivation by the formation of the B i O i donor in irradiated p -type Si.

Source: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment

DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2025.170886