Modeling of neutron radiation-induced defects in silicon particle detectors

Radiation damage of the silicon detectors in future hadron colliders poses a major challenge for its reliable operation. It is crucial to investigate the neutron-induced radiation damage owing to its large flux in the calorimeters and the trackers. Measurement results on irradiated detectors are complemented by modeling for getting a deep insight into the device behavior. This work presents the development of neutron-induced radiation damage model in silicon detectors using TCAD simulation. A wide spectrum of measurement results available on neutron-irradiated silicon detectors, viz. full depletion voltage, leakage current, charge collection, and effective trapping times, helps in constraining the model parameters, resulting in a robust model for neutron damage. Modeling has been performed within the phase-space of the measurements, i.e. for different initial bulk resistivities, active thicknesses and for both polarities up to the fluence values of 9 × 10 14 1 MeV n eq cm −2 (where, 1 MeV n eq refers to the equivalent fluence for monoenergetic neutrons of energy 1 MeV) and for two measurement temperatures, 253 and 263 K. The results obtained from the devised neutron damage model show a good agreement with the measurement results.