Proton-Induced Nuclear Reactions in Silicon

Measurements of the energy deposited in silicon surface-barrier detectors as a result of proton-induced nuclear reactions were carried out at the Harvard Cyclotron for protons with incident energies ranging from 50 to 158 MeV and detectors with thicknesses of 2.5, 4.2, 24.1, 100, and 200 ¿m. The number of events in which a given threshold amount of energy is deposited in a 4.2 ¿m detector varied with incident proton energy in a manner similar to previous measurements of the proton-induced soft-error cross section. The number of events in which at least a threshold amount of energy was deposited in the detector fell off in a near exponential manner with increasing threshold energy. The data were found to be in reasonable agreement with a computer simulation model developed in our laboratory. The model is used to illustrate how the mass spectra of the residual nuclear fragments shifts towards lower masses with increasing recoil energy. Lighter recoils have longer ranges and a greater chance of leaving a microscopically thin sensitive volume element before coming to their end of range.