Integration of Monte Carlo and TCAD approaches to characterize silicon detectors' response to heavy ion radiation

The effects of heavy ions on radiation spectrometry detectors are known to be significantly influenced by the sensitive material, such as the crystal, the associated electronics, and the physical properties of the incident beam. Detector performance can be effectively characterized through computational modeling, including Monte Carlo simulations for radiation transport and collisions, and Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) calculations to assess the overall active response. This work presents a methodology that integrates stochastic Monte Carlo techniques to evaluate the primary effects on the sensitive material, followed by incorporation into a TCAD tool to estimate the overall detector response. The proposed methodology, previously demonstrated and validated for electron beams, has now been implemented and tested for heavy ions, simulating the effects on a silicon crystal from proton (¹H), helium (⁴He), and carbon (¹²C) ion beams, as used in hadron therapy. The implementation employs the FLUKA Monte Carlo code and the SENTAURUS TCAD tool. Linear energy transfer (LET) values for different heavy ion beams, along with corresponding angular deflections, have been calculated using FLUKA, and the results have been structured to serve as input data for the SENTAURUS TCAD tool. This approach has demonstrated promising capabilities for providing reliable Si-based detector responses within the hadron therapy energy range. (author)