Radiation hardness of amorphous silicon particle sensors

Radiation tests of 32 μm thick hydrogenated amorphous silicon n–i–p diodes have been performed using a high-energy 24 GeV proton beam up to fluences of 2 × 10 ¹⁶ protons/cm ². The results are compared to irradiation of similar 1 μm and 32 μm thick n–i–p diodes using a proton beam of 405 keV at a fluence of 3 × 10 ¹³ protons/cm ² . All samples exhibited a drop of the photoconductivity and an increase in the dark leakage current under both high- and low-energy proton irradiation. An almost full recovery of the device performance was observed after a subsequent thermal annealing.