Evolution of Scintillation and Electrical Characteristics of AlGaN Double-Response Sensors During Proton Irradiation

Abstract

Wide bandgap AlGaN is one of the most promising materials for the fabrication of radiation hard, double-response particle detectors for future collider facilities. However, the formation of defects during growth and fabrication of AlGaN-based devices is unavoidable. Furthermore, radiation defects are formed in detector structures during operation at extreme conditions. In this work, study of evolution of the proton-induced luminescence spectra and short-circuit current has been simultaneously performed during 1.6 MeV proton irradiation. GaN and AlGaN (with various Al concentrations) epi-layers grown by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition technique and Schottky diode structures have been examined. Variations of spectral and electrical parameters could be applied for the remote dosimetry of large hadron fluences.

Modification of characteristics of AlGaN photodiodes by 1.6 MeV proton irradiation

“…The detectors contained planar contacts. The content of Al within Al x Ga 1−x N alloys has been determined [6] by using energy dispersed X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The electrical and optical characteristics were measured ex situ in the pristine and 10 15 p/cm 2 fluence irradiated samples.…”

“…The important requirements in fabrication of particle detectors for high energy physics (HEP) experiments are the rather small amount of point as well as extended defects and the homogeneity of the crystals. However, the rather high density of technological defects is inherent even for advanced technology (such as ammonothermal and lateral-overgrowth [4,5]) growth of GaN/AlGaN materials, limiting electro-optical characteristics of the formed devices [6].…”