Basic research in silicon radiation damage

Our group is a longstanding leader in radiation damage studies in silicon for high energy physics experiments and, more recently, also photon science.

We study radiation induced defects in the silicon band gap and their effects on basic sensor properties like dark current, effective space charge concentration and trapping of charge carriers. This research is done in the framework of the RD50 collaboration.

We make use of a suite of measurement techniques ranging from current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characterization, measurements with radioactive sources and lasers to microscopic techniques like the deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and thermally stimulated current (TSC). The latter allow the spectroscopy of energy levels in the silicon band gap corresponding to specific radiation induced latice defects.

Together, macroscopic and microscopic measurement techniques give us a more complete picture of radiation damage in silicon and help us identify more radiation tolerant silicon materials.