Use of nuclear techniques to study transport properties in semiconductor devices

Abstract

The study of radiation effects in semiconductor electronics and detectors is fundamental to assess the lifetime and performance deterioration of the devices working in high radiation environments like nuclear reactors, particle accelerators and outer space. In this talk, the potentiality of the low energy particle accelerators for the study of transport properties in semiconductor materials will be highlighted. We will introduce the fundamentals of the Ion Beam Induced Charge (IBIC) technique, which makes use of a focused MeV light ion beam to image the depletion regions of electronic devices at the micrometric scale. As an example, the relative hardness to high energy proton irradiation of a series of Si (n-type and p-type) and SiC (n-type) diodes is evaluated through the decrease of the minority carrier lifetime as a function of the proton fluence.