Calculation of the displacement cross sections and the DPA distribution in hydrogenated amorphous silicon semiconductors detectors in medical digital imaging applications

Abstract

In present paper the dependence of the displacement cross sections of the different species of atoms in the a-Si:H structure, with the energy of the secondary electrons generated by the X-rays of the typical energies using in medical imaging applications, was calculated using the Mott-McKinley-Feshbach approach. It was verified that for electron energies higher than 1.52 keV it is possible the occurrence of hydrogen atoms displacements, while for the silicon atoms the threshold energy is 126 keV. These results were compared with those obtained for similar detectors but developed with crystalline silicon. With the use of the mathematical simulation of the radiation transport in the matter, the energy spectrum of the secondary electrons was calculated in order to estimate the number of atomic displacements, which take place in the semiconducting amorphous device in working regime. The spatial distribution of the dpa in the detectors volume, as well as its behavior with the depth in the work region are presented and discussed in the text.