1. Amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon heterojunctions for nuclear radiation detector applications
- Author
-
W.S. Hong, N.W. Wang, Paul N. Luke, F.P. Ziemba, and J.T. Walton
- Subjects
Amorphous silicon ,Nuclear and High Energy Physics ,Materials science ,Silicon ,business.industry ,Nanocrystalline silicon ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Heterojunction ,Particle detector ,Semiconductor detector ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Nuclear Energy and Engineering ,chemistry ,Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition ,Electronic engineering ,Optoelectronics ,Crystalline silicon ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Detectors and Experimental Techniques ,business - Abstract
Results on the characterization of the electrical properties of amorphous silicon films for the three different growth methods, RF sputtering, PECVD, and LPCVD are reported. The performance of these a-Si films as heterojunctions on high resistivity p-type and n-type crystalline silicon is examined by measuring the noise, leakage current and the alpha particle response of 5 mm diameter detector structures. It is demonstrated that heterojunction detectors formed by RF sputtered films and PECVD films are comparable in performance with conventional surface barrier detectors. The results indicate that the a-Si/c-Si heterojunctions have the potential to greatly simplify detector fabrication. Directions for future avenues of nuclear particle detector development are indicated.
- Published
- 1996