Radiation hardness of SiC based ions detectors for influence of the relative protons

Abstract Nuclear detector radiation hardness is very important for key experiments in high-energy physics, where the irradiation fluence of relativistic particles can be as high as 1015 cm−2. In this work, we investigate the radiation hardness of SiC Schottky diode detectors φ600 μm, obtained by magnetron sputtering of Ni on surface of 6H–SiC films, grown by sublimation epitaxy in vacuum. Irradiation has been performed using 1 GeV protons. Detector characteristics were tested by α-particles from a 244Cm source (5.79 MeV). Investigation of the detector parameters (diffusion length, radiation-induced defects concentration, thickness of the space charge region), before and after irradiation shows that, up to a fluence of 3×10 14 cm −2 , the device degradation is at a beginning stage.