Studies of the sensitivity dependence of float zone silicon diodes on gamma absorbed dose

Full text: Several advantages of silicon diodes which include small size, low cost, high sensitivity and wide availability, make them suitable for dosimetry and for radiation field mapping. However, the small radiation tolerance of ordinary silicon devices has imposed constraints on their application in intense radiation fields such as found in industrial radiation processes. This scenario has been changed with the development of radiation hard silicon devices to be used as track detectors in high-energy physics experiments. Particularly, in this work it is presented the dosimetric results obtained with a batch of nine junction silicon diodes developed, in the framework of CERN RD50 Collaboration, as good candidates for improved radiation hardness. These diodes were produced with 300 micrometer n-type silicon substrate grown by standard float zone technique and processed by the Microelectronics Center of Helsinki University of Technology. The samples irradiation was performed using a Co-60 irradiator (Gammacell 220) which delivers a dose-rate of 2 kGy/h. During the irradiation, the unbiased diodes were connected through low-noise coaxial cables to the input of a KEITHLEY 617 electrometer, in order to monitor the devices photocurrent as a function of the exposure time. To study the response uniformity of the batch of nine diodes as well the sensitivity dependence on the absorbed dose, they were irradiated with different doses from 5 kGy up to 50 kGy. The sensitivity response of each device was investigated through the on-line measurements of the current signals as a function of the exposure time. For doses up to 5 kGy, all diodes exhibited a current decay of almost six percent in comparison with the value registered at the start-time of the irradiation. However, this decrease in the current sensitivity is much smaller than those observed with ordinary diodes for the same absorbed dose. The dose-response curves of the devices were also investigated through the plot of the charge generated in the depletion region of the diodes (obtained via integration of the current signals versus time) as a function of the absorbed dose. Similar dose-response curves (with second order polynomial fit) were obtained for all diodes. These results were used to verify both the uniformity and short-term repeatability of the devices. It still remains to be investigated the feasibility of using these float zone diodes for routine on-line radiation processing monitoring. (author)