Silicon carbide particle detectors: analysis and simulations

Silicon carbide is a promising wide-gap material because of its excellent electrical and physical properties, which are very relevant to technological applications. In particular, silicon carbide can represent a good alternative to Si in applications like the inner tracking detectors of particle physics experiments [1]. In this paper, we discuss the potential implementation of silicon carbide radiation detectors: by means of simulation studies we carry out a comparison between a typical silicon detector and a silicon carbide radiation sensor in terms of charge collection efficiency related to the crossing of a Minimum Ionizing Particle (MIP). Figure 1 shows the current generated by a MIP in a 300 mm deep and 50 mm wide SiC detector. Since the baseline represents the noise current of the device, we note that the S/N ratio is very high, thus the detection of the crossing particle can be accomplished very easily. The forthcoming paper will also compare different technological options for the SiC detectors, looking for optimal overall performance of the sensing system.