Radiation Hardness of Thin Low Gain Avalanche Detectors

TL;DR

This study evaluates the radiation tolerance of thin Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs), demonstrating their superior performance over standard detectors at high fluences and analyzing the effects of different irradiation particles and fabrication parameters.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of thin LGAD sensors from different producers under irradiation, highlighting their improved radiation hardness and the influence of gain layer doping profiles.

Findings

Thin LGADs outperform standard detectors below 2e15 cm-2 fluence.

Pions cause more damage than neutrons at the same fluence.

High bias voltages induce gain from deep acceptors in the bulk.

Abstract

Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) are based on a n++-p+-p-p++ structure where an appropriate doping of the multiplication layer (p+) leads to high enough electric fields for impact ionization. Gain factors of few tens in charge significantly improve the resolution of timing measurements, particularly for thin detectors, where the timing performance was shown to be limited by Landau fluctuations. The main obstacle for their operation is the decrease of gain with irradiation, attributed to effective acceptor removal in the gain layer. Sets of thin sensors were produced by two different producers on different substrates, with different gain layer doping profiles and thicknesses (45, 50 and 80 um). Their performance in terms of gain/collected charge and leakage current was compared before and after irradiation with neutrons and pions up to the equivalent fluences of 5e15 cm-2. Transient Current Technique and charge collection measurements with LHC speed electronics were employed to characterize the detectors. The thin LGAD sensors were shown to perform much better than sensors of standard thickness (~300 um) and offer larger charge collection with respect to detectors without gain layer for fluences <2e15 cm-2. Larger initial gain prolongs the beneficial performance of LGADs. Pions were found to be more damaging than neutrons at the same equivalent fluence, while no significant difference was found between different producers. At very high fluences and bias voltages the gain appears due to deep acceptors in the bulk, hence also in thin standard detectors.