RESPONSE OF SEMICONDUCTOR SURFACE-BARRIER COUNTERS TO NITROGEN IONS AND ALPHA PARTICLES

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1960 · Nuclear Instr. & Methods

OSTI ID:4143863

Halbert, M L; Blankenship, J L

Silicon and germanium surface-barrier counters for detection of short- range ionizing particles were constructed and tested. Measurements with artificial pulses showed that the barrier height V/sub 0/ is about 0.6 volt in silicon and that with variation of the applied bias V. the barrier capaciiy is linear with (V/sub 0/ + V)/sup -1/2/ as is expected from the Schottky exhaustion- layer theory. Measurements with natural alpha particles showed that the charge-collection efficiency is probably 100%, the energy loss per electronhole pair is 3.50 hr at 1500 deg 0.05 ev in silicon and 2.83 hr at 1500 deg 0.03 ev in germanium, and the pulse-height resolution is outstandingly good. Two independent measurements with cyclotronproduced N/sup 14/ ions up to 25 Mev showed that the pulse-height response is linear with energy. The ratio of N/sup 14/ to alpha pulse height is equal to the energy ratio to within 1%. The response to a continuous energy distribution of alpha particles indicates that the sensitive depth is on the order of 20 mu greater than the barrier depth calculated from the Schottky theory. The excess sensitive depth probably represents diffusion into the exhaustion layer of holes produced below it. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
• NSA Number: NSA-14-024293
• OSTI ID: 4143863
• Journal Information: Nuclear Instr. & Methods, Journal Name: Nuclear Instr. & Methods Vol. Vol: 8
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALPHA PARTICLES
COUNTERS
DIFFUSION
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY
ENGINEERING AND EQUIPMENT
FILMS
GERMANIUM
IONS
LOSSES
MATHEMATICS
MEASURED VALUES
NITROGEN 14
PULSES
RESOLUTION
SCHOTTKY THEORY
SEMICONDUCTORS
SENSITIVITY
SILICON