Room-temperature particle detectors with guard rings based on semi-insulating InP co-doped with Ti and Zn

Particle detectors made with a guard-ring (GR) electrode, operating at room temperature, have been studied. The detectors were fabricated on a semi-insulating InP crystal co-doped with Ti and Zn, grown using the Liquid-Encapsulated Czochralski technique. The detection performance of the particle detectors was evaluated using alpha particles emitted from a 241Am source. Good detector performance has been achieved with measured charge-collection efficiencies of 99.9% and 98.2% and FWHM energy resolutions of 0.9% and 2.1%. The measurements were carried out at 230 K for negative and positive bias voltages of the irradiated electrode. The good performance is due to the SI properties of the material which has been achieved by doping with suitable Ti atoms and co-doping with a low concentration of Zn acceptors, sufficient to fully compensate shallow donors. Electron and hole charge-collection efficiencies (CCEs) were measured at various temperatures. At room temperature, unlike at low temperature (T<250 K), the hole CCE was better than the electron CCE, which can be explained by the presence of electron-trapping centres in InP with a temperature-dependent capture rate.