Leakage current in high-purity germanium detectors with amorphous semiconductor contacts

Amorphous semiconductor electrical contacts on high-purity Ge radiation detectors have become a valuable technology because they are simple to fabricate, result in thin dead layers, block both electron and hole injection, and can readily be finely segmented as needed for applications requiring imaging or particle tracking. Though significant numbers of detectors have been successfully produced for a variety of applications using the amorphous semiconductor contact technology, there remains a need to better understand the dependence of performance characteristics, particularly leakage current, on the fabrication process parameters so that the performance can be better optimized. To this end, we have performed a systematic study of leakage current on RF-sputter-deposited amorphous-Ge (a-Ge) and amorphous-Si (a-Si) contacts as a function of process and operational parameters including sputter gas pressure and composition, number of detector temperature cycles, and time spent at room temperature. The study focused primarily on the current resulting from electron injection at the contact. Significant findings from the study include that a-Si produces lower electron injection than a-Ge, the time the detector spends at room temperature rather than the number of temperature cycles experienced by the detector is the primary factor associated with leakage current change when the detector is warmed, and the time stability of the a-Ge contact depends on the sputter gas pressure with a higher pressure producing more stable characteristics.