Particles Detector

Alejandro Giménez Expósito

6 de abril de 2021

Question 1
To begin with, semiconductors have two different charge carriers. Ones being the electrons
of the conducting band and the others the holes left behind on the ionized atoms. If a particle
with enough energy interacts with an electron on the valence band of a semiconductor atom this
one will get ionized. This means an electron will rise to the conduction band and a hole will
be left behind creating two charge carriers. This process can occur with a sufficiently energetic
photon being absorbed withing a small distance.
On the other hand, a PIN diode has two different surfaces, one of them corresponding to a
n semiconductor, doped with negative charges, and the other to a p semiconductor, doped with
holes. This kind of junction, after the carriers recombine 1 to 1, a depleted region is generated
without charge carriers and only positive and negative ions opposing each other. This generates
an electric field (pointing the p zone) on the junction. This field can be fully depleted with a
concrete voltage. When a pair electron-hole is created on that region, due to ionization by a
particle, both charges will move following the electric field, electron against and hole in favor.
Though electrons will move faster for being on the conduction band and moving more freely
while holes advance through recombinations.
This being the case, and with a smaller and highly more doped n zone, the electric field will
point towards the p zone. If the laser goes towards the n side the electron from the couples created
will rapidly go to the anode without passing to much time on the depleted zone not contributing
as an injecting. Meanwhile the hole will travel through recombination to the opposite side where
the cathode is, following the electric field making a contribution as a positive carrier injection.
An opposite reasoning can be done for an incident beam on the p surface, but the holes will be
the ones going to the closest cathode and the electrons will be the ones travelling to the n side
opposing to the electric field. So being an electron injection.

Question 2
a)
On a p-n junction after charge carriers recombine the depletion zone is formed with positive
ions on the n side and negative ions on the p side. This fixed ions generates an electric field that
serves as a barrier for conduction electrons on the n side and holes on the p side. Doping the n
with extra charges makes that side to have more potential and generate a higher electric field.
As potential is important in the longitudinal direction of the semiconductor the problem can be
studied in one dimension. And the Poisson equation would be expressed as

d2 φ ρ(x)
2
=− , (1)
dx 

1
where x is the field direction on the semiconductor, φ is the potential,  is the dielectric constant
of the superconductor, ρ is the charge density distribution.
So, knowing the charge distribution it is possible to solve the potential and thus the electric
field. The charge distribution depends on the number of acceptors Na and donors Nd . It also
depends on the depletion depth of the n region xn and that of the p zone xp (xn  xp , as n is
highly more doped). The distribution is as follows
(
+eNd , −xn < x ≤ 0
ρ(x) = (2)
−eNa , 0 < x ≤ xp
And so the electric field will result on:
(
dφ + eN d (x + xn ), −xn < x ≤ 0
E(x) = − = (3)
dx − eN a (x − xp ), 0 < x ≤ xp

b)
The depletion zones can be obtained from the Eq.(3) by integrating the electric field to
obtain the potential.
  
− eNd x2 − xn x + C1 , 0 ≤ x < xn
  2
φ(x) =  (4)
+ eNa x2 − xp x + C2 , −xp < x ≤ 0
 2

where C1 and C2 are just constants from the integration.

From this equations the depletion depths can be obtained taking into account the following
conditions on the potential. The potential must be the sam e for both equations at x = 0, must
be the Vbias at x = xn and 0V at x = −xp . Resulting to:
 1/2
2Vbias
xn = (5)
eNd (1 + Nd /Na )
 1/2
2Vbias
xp = (6)
eNa (1 + Na /Nd )

c)
A fully depleted junction has a depleted region of the whole thickness of the material, in this
case of d = 0.03cm. As Nd  Na the depletion zone can be considered as the xp as this zone
will be much greater than xn . In addition, the resistivity of the doped P-region of ρp = 30KΩcm
is ρp ≈ 1/eNa µh . So using Eq.(6) the d variable gets isolated as
 1/2
2Vbias
d ≈ xp ≈ = (2ρp µh Vbias )1/2 (7)
eNa
as Na /Nd ≈ 0 as Nd  Na .
So having a hole mobility of µh = 450cm2 V−1 s−1 and a silicon permitivity of  = 11.68 ·
8.85 · 10−12 Fm the result is

d2 0.032
Vbias = = = 32.2V (8)
2ρp µh  2 · 300 · 450 · 11.68 · 8.85 · 10−12

2
Question 3

The inverse current per volume unit is called a current density

J = Is /V, (9)

where Is is the saturation current and V is the volume of the semiconductor and is calculated
as

V = A · d = 25 · 0.3 = 7.5mm3 (10)

as d = 0.3mm is the depleted zone and the semiconductor’s plane is a square of side 5mm.
The inverse currents for hole injection and electron injection are shown on the Fig.(1 &
2). The saturation current is taken for bias voltages higher than 30 which approximately the
depletion voltage as shown on the Fig.(1 & 2) and estimated on the Question 2. The saturation
current is then calculated as a mean of all the values higher than the voltage of depletion and
the error is calculated as the mean standard error of those values. Resulting an invert current
of:

Ish = (215.1 ± 1.5)A ; Ise = (72.2 ± 0.6)A, (11)

Is h being the saturation current for holes injection (from the top) and Ie being the saturation
current for electrons injection (from the bottom).
So, the current densities result with the error being propagated is:

Jh = Ish /A = 215.1/7.5 = (28.7 ± 0.2)A ; Je = Ise /A = 72.2/7.5 = (9.63 ± 0.08)A (12)

The invert current density of the holes is clearly higher than that of the electrons. Perhaps,
this might be due to the two measures been taken in two different hours of the evening meaning
different ambient lights. Being higher the one of the holes which correspond to the one being
measured before which makes sense with the hypothesis. Also, this might be explain due to
the fact that both measures might have been taken with a different distance of the laser to the
surface of the diode meaning a different intensity of the beam and so a higher or lower current.
In fact, as there was some difficulties on the bottom adjustment of the system the laser might
be at a larger distance or with a bit of inclination, thus, losing some photons and lowering the
intensity and the current on the material.

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 TOP (hole injection) BOTTOM (electron injection)
700 80

70
600

60

500
50
I / nA

I / nA
40
400

30

300
20

200 10
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
V /V V /V
bias bias

Figura 1: Shows the value of the invert Figura 2: Shows the value of the invert
current in relation to the bias voltage ap- current in relation to the bias voltage ap-
plied, when laser land on the n region of plied, when laser land on the p region of
the junction. the junction.

Question 4
Two different types of injections have been studied on this experiment. The first consisting
on illuminating the diode from the top and the other case from the bottom, both graphics of
the current against the time can be observed on Fig.(3 & 4).
The first case correspond to a hole injection as it enters through the n zone of the junction.
This means that injected holes start at the highest point of the electric field thus having the
highest current. As the hole advances through the depletion zone the electric field decreases and
so does the current. This continues till the hole reaches the end of the depletion zone, at this
point 3 situations can occur. If the material was not fully depleted the hole will take very long to
reach the cathode as it will disperse on the p zone, this is seen on the Fig.(3) on the 20V curve
where a long tail appears at the end as time advances. By increasing the bias voltage the tails
starts to disappear as material gets more and more depleted till it reaches full depletion. In this
case current start at a higher point on the starting region as the electric field is higher (higher
voltage), goes decreasing as holes advances through the material and reaches the cathode at
electric field of 0. This case is not represented on the graph but the curve will end as a triangle
laying on the x axis, without tail. For a higher bias voltage than the full depletion voltage the
physics are quite the same. As bias voltage increases the current starts at a higher values goes
decreasing and instead of ending on the x axis (as in depletion bias voltage) the hole reaches
the cathode at a value of electric field higher that 0 and so current is not 0 when reaching the
cathode. Instead it has a value and abruptly goes to 0. This can be seen on Fig.(3) on bias
voltages 40V and above.
The second case, laser reaching from the bottom, correspond to electron injection, Fig.(4).
This means that for higher voltages than depletion bias voltage the process will be exactly the
same that the holes injection but starting at a lower current state and passing to a higher one.
This happens due to electrons advancing in the direction of ascending electric field. For the case
of exact depletion bias voltage the curve will be a mirror triangle of the hole injection as well.
As electrons starts at a position of electric field of value 0 and advances to parts with higher

4
electric field till they reaches the anode at the higher electric field and current turns abruptly
to 0. Meanwhile, for bias voltages lower than depletion voltage, the electrons starts at the p
zone where a lot of dispersion occurs due to not having a preferred orientation of the direction
of movement as no electric field is present. At some time an electron will enter the depletion
zone starting at 0 voltage and advancing to higher electric field closer to the n side. This is the
explanation behind the shape of the 20V of the Fig.(4).

15 25
120V 120V
100V 100V
80V 80V
60V 20 60V
40V 40V
20V 20V
10
15
I/mA

I/mA
10
5

0 0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
t/ns t/ns

Figura 3: Shows the different currents
depending of the time since the photon
reaches the depletion zone from the n side.
This curve is represented for several bias
voltages from 20V to 120V. Current has
been calculated from the voltages measu-
red and dividing by the resistance of the
oscilloscope.
Figura 4: Shows the different currents
depending of the time since the photon
reaches the depletion zone from the p side.
This curve is represented for several bias
voltages from 20V to 120V. Current has
been calculated from the voltages measu-
red and dividing by the resistance of the
oscilloscope.

Question 5

The charge of carriers moving on the depleted zone of the diode would be the integral on
time of the current produced by those charges.

Z tf
Q= I(t)dt (13)
t0

If the junction is not fully depleted not all the charges will reach the opposite side of the
diode or at least not on a reasonable amount of time. Thus, to know the whole charge created
by the laser the junction should be fully depleted. This can be seen on Fig.(3 & 4), where for the
voltages of 40V current stops abruptly meaning all the charges reached the cathode or anode,
and so, no more current is produced by those charges.

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 200 210

190 208

180 206

170 204

160 202

150 200

140 198

130 196

120 194

110 192

100 190
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40

Figura 5: Representation of the posi- Figura 6: Representation of the nega-

tive charge generated by the laser and tive charge generated by the laser and
received by the cathode electrode depen- received by the anode electrode depen-
ding on the bias voltage applied. ding on the bias voltage applied.

a)
This being the case some more measures had been taken on the interval of bias voltage near
to the fully depleted voltage. In this way it is possible to estimate the depletion voltage from
the Observation of Fig.(5 & 6). As charge reaching the receptor is equal for all the bias voltages
above the depletion voltage, its is possible to deduce from the graphs a fully depletion voltage
of:

Vbias ≈ 30 ± 1V (14)
This is quite approximated as on the hole injection the difference in the slope is more obvious but
on the electron injection is the change is more diffuse. But it is certainly close to that estimated
on the Question 2.

b)
To calculate the resistivity of the p type material the Eq.(8) can be used as this expression
is approximated for taking into account that only the p region contributes to the resistivity (as
most of the depleted region is of the p type). The result is:

0.032
ρp = = 322 ± 11Ω m (15)
30 · 2 · 450 · 11.68 · 8.85 · 10−12
Taking into account the error estimated of the depletion voltage on the previous a) section.
This value of resistivity close to the one given in the c) section of the Question 2, as fully depleted
bias voltage are pretty close to as expected.
I could not think of a way to estimate the n type resistivity.

c)
The energy of each of the photon of the laser beam can be calculated with the knowledge of
the wave length as

c 3 · 108
E = hν = h = 4.13567 · 10−15 = 1.86eV (16)
λ 667 · 10−9

6
This value is higher than the ionization energy which means that the photons of the beam can
be absorbed by the atoms of the semiconductor for an electron to be released. Thus, generating
a pair h-e as studied in this experiment.

Referencias
[1] Wikipedia: Electron Mobility,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron mobility

[2] Knoll, Gelnn F. Radiation detection and measurement, Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons

[3] Leo, W. R. Techniques for Nuclear and Particle Physics Experiments, Second Revised Edi-
tion. Springer-Verlag, 1994.

[4] Teacher’s documentation