Radiation hardness of amorphous silicon particle sensors

Radiation tests of 32 μm thick hydrogenated amorphous silicon n-i-p diodes have been performed using a high- energy 24 GeV proton beam up to fluences of 2x1016 protons/cm2. The results are compared to irradiation of similar 1 μm and 32 μm thick n-i-p diodes using a proton beam of 405 keV at a fluence of 3x1013 protons/cm2. All samples exhibited a drop of the photoconductivity and an increase in the dark leakage current under both high and low energy proton irradiation. An almost full recovery of the device performance was observed after a subsequent thermal annealing.