Amorphous Ge bipolar blocking contacts on Ge detectors

The authors report on the performance of high-purity Ge radiation detectors with amorphous Ge (a-Ge) contacts fabricated using RF sputtering techniques. Electrical contacts formed using sputtered a-Ge films on high-purity Ge crystals were found to exhibit good blocking behavior in both polarities with low leakage currents. The a-Ge contacts have thin dead layers associated with them and can be used in place of lithium-diffused, ion-implanted or Schottky barrier contacts on Ge radiation detectors. Multielectrode detectors can be fabricated with very simple processing steps using these contacts.<>