Auger compositional depth profiling of the metal contact-TlBr interface

Autor: Leonard J. Cirignano, S.A. Payne, K.S. Shah, Lars F. Voss, R. T. Graff, Hadong Kim, E. L. Swanberg, Art J. Nelson, Rebecca J. Nikolic, Adam M. Conway
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: SPIE Proceedings.
ISSN: 0277-786X
Popis: Degradation of room temperature operation of TlBr radiation detectors with time is thought to be due to electromigration of Tl and Br vacancies within the crystal as well as the metal contacts migrating into the TlBr crystal itself due to electrochemical reactions at the metal/TlBr interface. Scanning Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) in combination with sputter depth profiling was used to investigate the metal contact surface/interfacial structure on TlBr devices. Device-grade TlBr was polished and subjected to a 32% HCl etch to remove surface damage and create a TlBr1-xClx surface layer prior to metal contact deposition. Auger compositional depth profiling results reveal non-equilibrium interfacial diffusion after device operation in both air and N2 at ambient temperature. These results improve our understanding of contact/device degradation versus operating environment for further enhancing radiation detector performance.
Databáze: OpenAIRE