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The surface leakage current of high-resolution 4H-SiC epitaxial layer Schottky barrier detectors has been improved significantly after surface passivations of 4H-SiC epitaxial layers. Thin (nanometer range) layers of silicon dioxide (SiO2) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) were deposited on 4H-SiC epitaxial layers using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) on 20 m thick n-type 4H-SiC epitaxial layers followed by the fabrication of large area (~12 mm2) Schottky barrier radiation detectors. The fabricated detectors have been characterized through current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage (C-V), and alpha pulse height spectroscopy measurements; the results were compared with that of detectors fabricated without surface passivations. Improved energy resolution of ~ 0.4% for 5486 keV alpha particles was observed after passivation, and it was found that the performance of these detectors were limited by the presence of macroscopic and microscopic crystal defects affecting the charge transport properties adversely. Capacitance mode deep level transient studies (DLTS) revealed the presence of a titanium impurity related shallow level defects (Ec-0.19 eV), and two deep level defects identified as Z1/2 and Ci1 located at Ec-0.62 and ~ Ec-1.40 eV respectively.

In the present work high-resolution alpha particle detectors have been fabricated on high quality 20 μm thick n-type 4H-SiC epitaxial layers. Schottky barrier detectors have been fabricated by depositing 10 nm thick nickel contacts on the Si face of the epilayers. The detectors were characterized using current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage (CV), alpha spectroscopic measurements, and deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). I-V measurements revealed a barrier height of ~1.6 eV, diode ideality factor of 1.09, and leakage current of the order of 14 pA at an operating bias of 110 V. C-V measurements revealed low effective doping concentrations of 3.1 × 1014 cm-3 in the epilayers. A micropipe density lower than 1 cm-2 was evaluated in the epilayers. Pulse-height spectroscopy exhibited energy resolution as high as 0.37 % for 5.48 MeV alpha particles with a detector active area of 11 mm2. A diffusion length of ~13.2 μm for holes has been determined in these detectors following a calculation based on a drift-diffusion model. Detailed electronic noise analysis in terms of equivalent noise charge (ENC) was carried out to study the effect of various noise components that contribute to the total electronic noise in the detection system. The noise analysis revealed that the white series noise due to the detector capacitance has substantial effect on the detector’s overall performance. DLTS measurements have revealed the presence of at least four majority (electron) carrier trap levels that can act as recombination/generation or trapping centers.

Synthesized amorphous selenium (a-Se) alloy materials have been characterized for room temperature high-energy nuclear radiation detector and x-ray detection applications. The alloy composition has been optimized to ensure good charge transport properties and detector performance. The synthesis of a-Se (As, Cl) alloys has been carried out by thoroughly mixing zone-refined (ZR) Se (~7N) with previously synthesized a-Se(As) and a-Se(Cl) master alloys (MS). The synthesized alloys have been characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), glow discharge mass spectroscopy (GDMS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics measurements. Raman spectroscopy demonstrated that the a-Se(As) master alloy samples were in metastable monoclinic Se8 states, in which seven vibrational modes are located at 40(41), 59(60), 77, 110, 133, 227(228) and 251(252) cm-1. However, a-Se(Cl) master alloy samples are in stable form of trigonal structure of Se8 ring, in which two modes at 142 and 234 cm-1 were found. Both Raman and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) exhibited that a small amount of tellurium (Te) existed in a-Se (As, Cl) master alloy samples. DSC measurements showed that a-Se (Cl) MS and a-Se (As) MS samples have one melting point, located at ~219.6°C, whereas a-Se-As (0.52%)-Cl and Se- As(10.2%)-Cl(60 ppm) both possess two melting points, located at 221 and 220.3°C respectively. The a-Se alloy plate detectors have been fabricated and tested and the results showed high dark resistivity (1012 - 1013 Ω-cm) with good charge transport properties and cost-effective large-area scalability.