Comparative study by IBIC of Si and SiC diodes irradiated with high energy protons

The transport properties of a series of Si and SiC diodes have been studied using the Ion Beam Induced Charge (IBIC) technique. Structural defects were induced into the samples during the irradiation with 17 MeV protons. The experimental values of the charge collection efficiency (CCE) vs bias voltages have been analyzed using a modified drift-diffusion model, which takes into account the recombination of carriers in the neutral and depletion regions. From these simulations, we have obtained the values of the carrier's lifetime for pristine and irradiated diodes, which are found to degrade faster in the case of the SiC samples. However, the decrease of the CCE at high bias voltages is more important for the Si detectors, indicative of the lower radiation hardness of this material compared to SiC. The nature of the proton-induced defects on Si wafers has been studied by Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy (PAS) and Doppler Broadening Spectroscopy (DBS). The results suggest that the main defect detected by the positrons in p-type samples is the divacancy while for n-type at least a fraction of the positron annihilate in another defect. The concentration of defects is much lower than the number of vacancies predicted by SRIM.