Charge Yield and Related Phenomena Induced by Ionizing Radiation in SiO2 Layers

Monte Carlo simulations are used to evaluate the spatial distributions of electron-hole pairs induced in SiO₂ by energetic electrons, protons, heavy ions, and X-rays. These distributions are then used to estimate the charge yield as the fraction of surviving pairs in the presence of a biasing field. This approach eliminates the need to make a priori assumptions about the average distribution, rendering it suitable for cases to which neither the columnar nor the geminate models is applicable. In addition, we treat other total ionizing dose effects in SiO₂: single hard error and the ionization by the fragments of p+Si nuclear interactions.