Investigation of the radiation damage of GaAs detectors by neutrons and photons

Surface barrier particle detectors, processed in Aachen using SI GaAs from several manufacturers, have been irradiated with neutrons (peak energy similar 1 MeV) up to fluences of 4.0.1014 n/cm2 and with photons from a 60Co source with a dose of 100 Mrad. All detectors work well after the irradiation. Detectors biased with 200 V during the neutron irradiation show no significant difference from those not biased. After irradiation with 4.0.1014 n/cm2 the leakage currents at 200 V are a factor of 4 greater than those before irradiation. At the highest radiation level the signal for minimum ionizing particles corresponds to 7200 electrons (at 200 V bias voltage) independent of peaking times between 40 ns and 2.2 μs. The signals for α-particles (2.2 μs peaking time, 200 V bias voltage) are about 20% of those before irradiation. The exposure to the 100 Mrad photon dose caused little change of the detector performance. The leakage currents were even reduced by about 10%. (orig.)