Simulation of radiation-induced defects

TL;DR

This paper discusses the simulation of radiation-induced defects in silicon detectors used in high-energy physics, focusing on modeling damage effects to predict detector performance after high radiation exposure.

Contribution

It introduces advanced simulation models that accurately reproduce the effects of radiation damage on silicon detectors, including surface properties and charge collection efficiency.

Findings

Models successfully reproduce leakage current and depletion voltage.

Simulations match experimental data for irradiated sensors.

Expanded to include surface effects and position-dependent charge collection.

Abstract

Mainly due to their outstanding performance the position sensitive silicon detectors are widely used in the tracking systems of High Energy Physics experiments such as the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb at LHC, the world's largest particle physics accelerator at CERN, Geneva. The foreseen upgrade of the LHC to its high luminosity (HL) phase (HL-LHC scheduled for 2023), will enable the use of maximal physics potential of the facility. After 10 years of operation the expected fluence will expose the tracking systems at HL-LHC to a radiation environment that is beyond the capacity of the present system design. Thus, for the required upgrade of the all-silicon central trackers extensive measurements and simulation studies for silicon sensors of different designs and materials with sufficient radiation tolerance have been initiated within the RD50 Collaboration. Supplementing measurements, simulations are in vital role for e.g. device structure optimization or predicting the electric fields and trapping in the silicon sensors. The main objective of the device simulations in the RD50 Collaboration is to develop an approach to model and predict the performance of the irradiated silicon detectors using professional software. The first successfully developed quantitative models for radiation damage, based on two effective midgap levels, are able to reproduce the experimentally observed detector characteristics like leakage current, full depletion voltage and charge collection efficiency (CCE). Recent implementations of additional traps at the SiO$_2$/Si interface or close to it have expanded the scope of the experimentally agreeing simulations to such surface properties as the interstrip resistance and capacitance, and the position dependency of CCE for strip sensors irradiated up to $\sim$$1.5\times10^{15}$ n$_{\textrm{eq}}\textrm{cm}^{-2}$.