An upgraded drift–diffusion model for evaluating the carrier lifetimes in radiation-damaged semiconductor detectors

The transport properties of a series of n- and p-type Si diodes have been studied by the ion beam induced charge (IBIC) technique using a 4 MeV proton microbeam. The samples were irradiated with 17 MeV protons at fluences ranging from 1 × 1012 to 1 × 1013 p/cm2 in order to produce a uniform profile of defects with depth. The analysis of the charge collection efficiency (CCE) as a function of the reverse bias voltage has been carried out using an upgraded drift–diffusion (D–D) model which takes into account the possibility of carrier recombination not only in the neutral substrate, as the simple D–D model assumes, but also within the depletion region. This new approach for calculating the CCE is fundamental when the drift length of carriers cannot be considered as much greater that the thickness of the detector due to the ion induced damage. From our simulations, we have obtained the values of the carrier lifetimes for the pristine and irradiated diodes, which have allowed us to calculate the effective trapping cross sections using the one dimension Shockley–Read–Hall model. The results of our calculations have been compared to the data obtained using a recently developed Monte Carlo code for the simulation of IBIC analysis, based on the probabilistic interpretation of the excess carrier continuity equations.