Radiation Hardness of Silicon Detectors for Applications in High-energy Physics Experiments

An overview of the radiation damage induced problems connected with the application of silicon particle detectors in future high-energy physics experiments is given. The present knowledge on the deterioration of the detector performance caused by irradiation with neutrons and high energetic protons is described leading to an appropriate modeling of the macroscopic parameters under irradiation, i.e. increase of the generation current, change of the effective space charge density and degradation of the charge collection efficiency. Possible ways are out-lined for improving the radiation tolerance of silicon detectors either by operational conditions, device optimization or defect engineering by oxygen enrichment of the high resistivity silicon material. Recent results on the effect of oxygen with concentrations in the order of 10 cm on the radiation induced changes of the macroscopic parameters and the introduction rate of defects as well as their kinetics measured by DLTSmethods will be presented and discussed in detail.