Studies on the effect of low-fluence proton and neutron irradiation on n-type LGADs

The presented study investigates the effects of fluences from 5 X 1012 up to 1 X 1014 particles/cm2 of 60 MeV proton and neutron irradiation on n-type Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (nLGADs). An nLGAD is a silicon sensor with a highly doped gain layer that enables controlled charge multiplication via...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Kraus, Veronika, Fernández García, Marcos, Hidalgo Villena, Salvador, Moll, Michael, Villegas Domínguez, Jairo Antonio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:idus________::16239e5a37e6ddf6d06acdd145bb41dd
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/186858
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2025.171138
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:nLGAD
Irradiation
Proton
Neutron
Annealing
Descripción
Sumario:The presented study investigates the effects of fluences from 5 X 1012 up to 1 X 1014 particles/cm2 of 60 MeV proton and neutron irradiation on n-type Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (nLGADs). An nLGAD is a silicon sensor with a highly doped gain layer that enables controlled charge multiplication via impact ionization. In contrast to the well-established p-type LGADs for high-energy physics (HEP) applications, nLGADs are optimized for the detection of low-penetrating particles such as UV photons and soft X-rays. In addition to studying their potential application in environments with radiation backgrounds, these novel devices also enable the exploration of the underlying phenomenology arising from the combination of n-type bulk material with a gain layer, which degradation was previously studied predominantly in the context of p-type LGADs. The irradiation effects were characterized through measurements of the leakage current and capacitance with increasing bias voltage (I–V and C–V), revealing systematic and fluence-dependent behavior related to space charge sign inversion (SCSI) of the n-type bulk material, which especially alters the electric field in the sensor and thus the depletion behavior. Additionally, annealing studies were performed to assess both beneficial and reverse annealing regimes with isothermal and isochronal annealing. The findings are consistent with previous high-energy proton studies and contribute to a deeper understanding of the fundamental behavior of nLGADs under irradiation.