Low energy x-ray response of Ge detectors with amorphous Ge entrance contacts

Author

Luke, P.N. ; Rossington, C.S. ; Wesela, M.F.

Author_Institution

Div. of Eng., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

41

Issue

4

fYear

1994

fDate

8/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1074

Lastpage

1079

Abstract

The low energy X-ray response of Ge detectors with amorphous Ge entrance contacts has been evaluated. The spectral background due to near contact incomplete charge collection was found to consist of two components: a low level component which is insensitive to applied voltage and a high level step-like component which is voltage dependent. At high operating voltages, the high level component can be completely suppressed, resulting in background levels which are much lower than those previously observed using Ge detectors with Pd surface barrier or B ion implanted contacts, and which also compare favorably to those obtained with Si(Li) X-ray detectors. The response of these detectors to ⁵⁵Fe and 1.77 keV X-rays is shown. A qualitative explanation of the origins of the observed background components is presented

Keywords

X-ray detection and measurement; semiconductor counters; Ge; Ge detectors; amorphous Ge entrance contacts; background components; high level component; low energy X-ray response; near contact incomplete charge collection; spectral background; Amorphous materials; Contacts; Electromagnetic wave absorption; Gold; Laboratories; Power engineering and energy; Spectroscopy; Voltage; X-ray detection; X-ray detectors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.322861

Filename

322861