Validation of Thermal Neutron Silicon Displacement Damage Metrics

We try to validate our modeling using experiments under a wide range of neutron/photon radiation conditions. One aspect of particular interest is material damage from thermal neutrons. There have been several reports of silicon displacement damage from thermal neutrons not following the normal damage metrics, i.e., large capture kerma values in many materials and less displacement damage for thermal neutrons environments than predicted by the Frenkel pair production metric. In response to these observed discrepancies, research efforts are underway to: a) improve the modeling of the capture kerma calculations based on nuclear data models; b) validate, quantify, and document the thermal neutron displacement discrepancy in large volume sensitive silicon transistors; and c) use defect-specific DLTS techniques to look for aid in understanding the source of the model discrepancy.

Contact: William Charlton