https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06528-1
Regular Article
The development of IBIC microscopy at the 100 kV ion implanter of the University of Torino (LIUTo) and the application for the assessment of the radiation hardness of a silicon photodiode
1
Physics Department, University of Torino, Via P. Giuria 1, 10125, Turin, Italy
2
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Sez. Torino, Turin, Italy
3
Division of Experimental Physics, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia
Received:
30
January
2025
Accepted:
6
June
2025
Published online:
30
June
2025
The ion beam induced charge (IBIC) technique is widely used to characterize the electronic properties of semiconductor materials and devices. Its main advantage over other charge collection microscopies stems in the use of MeV ion probes, which provide both measurable induced charge signals from single ions, and high spatial resolution, which is maintained along the ion range. It is a fact, however, that the use of low-energy ions in the keV range can provide the IBIC technique with complementary analytical capabilities that are not available with MeV ions, for example, the higher sensitivity to the status, contamination and morphology of the surface and the fact that the induced signal depends on the transport of only one type of charge carrier. This paper outlines the upgrade that was made at the 100 kV ion implanter of the University of Torino, originally installed for material and surface modification, to explore the rather unexplored keV-IBIC field and to assess its potential to characterize semiconductor devices. Finally, we report the first IBIC application of our apparatus, which regards the assessment of the radiation damage of a commercially available silicon photodiode, adopting the IAEA experimental protocol and the relevant interpretative model.
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06528-1.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
