Performance evaluation of a new 30 μm thick GaAs x-ray detector grown by MBE
Open Access
- 1 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Materials Research Express
- Vol. 8 (2), 025909
- https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/abe73c
Abstract
A circular mesa (400 μm diameter) GaAs p+-i-n+ photodiode with a 30 μm thick i layer was characterized for its performance as a detector in photon counting X-ray spectroscopy at 20 °C. The detector was fabricated from material grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). An earlier MBE-grown detector fabricated using a different fabrication process and material from a different area of the same epiwafer was shown to suffer from: relatively high leakage current at high temperatures; a high effective carrier concentration that limited its depletion layer width; and material imperfections (butterfly defects) [Lioliou et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 946, (2019) 162670]. However, the new detector has better performance (lower leakage current and effective carrier concentration within the i layer). Using the new detector and low noise readout electronics, an energy resolution of 750 eV ± 20 eV Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) at 5.9 keV was achieved at 20 °C, equal to that reported for high quality GaAs detectors made from high quality material grown by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy [Lioliou et al., J. Appl. Phys. 122 (2017) 244506]. The results highlight the substantially different performances of detectors made from the same epiwafer when the wafer qualities are not uniform and the effects of different fabrication processes.Keywords
Funding Information
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/P001815/1)
- Leverhulme Trust
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