Energy dependence of damage to Si PIN diodes exposed to β radiation

The radiation damage to Si PIN diodes such as used in the OPAL SiW luminometer was studied. It was found that the increase in leakage current after exposure to bursts of 500 MeV electrons is >0.2 × 103 times higher than after the exposure of an equivalent dose of electrons emitted from a Strontium β source. Highly-energetic electrons produce a similar amount of damage to silicon as do protons or neutrons.