Pulsed laser diffusion of thin hole-barrier contacts in high purity germanium for gamma radiation detectors

G. Maggioni; S. Carturan; W. Raniero; S. Riccetto; F. Sgarbossa; V. Boldrini; R. Milazzo; D. R. Napoli; D. Scarpa; A. Andrighetto; E. Napolitani; D. De Salvador

doi:10.1140/epja/i2018-12471-0

2021 Impact factor 3.131

Hadrons and Nuclei

Eur. Phys. J. A (2018) 54: 34
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2018-12471-0

Special Article - New Tools and Techniques

Pulsed laser diffusion of thin hole-barrier contacts in high purity germanium for gamma radiation detectors

G. Maggioni¹^,2^*, S. Carturan¹^,2, W. Raniero², S. Riccetto³, F. Sgarbossa¹^,2, V. Boldrini¹^,2, R. Milazzo¹, D. R. Napoli², D. Scarpa², A. Andrighetto², E. Napolitani¹^,2 and D. De Salvador¹^,2

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “G. Galilei”, Università di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35121, Padova (PD), Italy
² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Viale dell’Università 2, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy
³ INFN, Sezione di Perugia and Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Università di Perugia, Via A. Pascoli, 06123, Perugia, Italy

^* e-mail: maggioni@lnl.infn.it

Received: 1 December 2017
Accepted: 26 January 2018
Published online: 5 March 2018

Abstract

A new method for the formation of hole-barrier contacts in high purity germanium (HPGe) is described, which consists in the sputter deposition of a Sb film on HPGe, followed by Sb diffusion produced through laser annealing of the Ge surface in the melting regime. This process gives rise to a very thin ( nm) n-doped layer, as determined by SIMS measurement, while preserving the defect-free morphology of HPGe surface. A small prototype of gamma ray detector with a Sb laser-diffused contact was produced and characterized, showing low leakage currents and good spectroscopy data with different gamma ray sources.