RBS measurements of metal-doped p-type silicon used for radiation-hard detectors

• The amount and the nature of metal impurities to be used in making silicon radiation-hard are presented.
• The RBS results on p-type silicon prior to and after the diffusion of gold and diffusion of platinum are discussed.
• The results on p-type silicon prior to and after diffusion of erbium and niobium are also presented.

Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy measurements were carried out on p-type silicon prior to and after metal diffusion in order to determine the amount of diffused metal. The metals used were gold, platinum, erbium and niobium. The amount of the diffused metals was estimated by using the peak heights of the spectra. In all cases the heights become smaller after diffusion to show a reduction in the concentration of the metal on the silicon surface. This reduction of the heights is more pronounced for the heavy metals. This result confirms that the concentration of the diffused metal in the bulk depends on the atomic weight of the metal. It has also been found that after diffusion the metals tend to make the silicon a relaxation material. Such relaxation material has been found to be good for the fabrication of radiation-hard particle detectors.