A new generation of X-ray detectors based on silicon carbide

We present experimental results on X-ray detectors based on Silicon Carbide (SiC). We demonstrate that SiC allows operating the detectors in a wide temperature range (up to 100 deg. C) with performance, at high temperature, not attainable with any other semiconductor detector presently available. We have realized several detectors on epitaxial 4H-SiC layer. The spectrometer shows ultra low noise due to the extremely low leakage current densities of SiC detectors: 15 pA/cm2 at 27 deg. C and 525 pA/cm2 at 107 deg. C. Noise levels of 366 eV FWHM at 27 deg. C and 645 eV FWHM at 94 deg. C, limited by the noise of the silicon front-end transistor, have been measured on 241Am spectra