Stochastic theory of charge dynamics and recombination in defect clusters in bulk silicon

Abstract

Various types of defect clusters are generated in bulk Si-based high-energy particle detectors. They become either recombination centres or charge trapping centres. Populated trapping centres create internal fields which may affect the dynamics and recombination of remaining free charges. In the semiclassical regime, the charge dynamics can be described by the Boltzmann equation. In this paper, the stochastic description is presented as an alternative to a direct solution of the Boltzmann equation approach. It is demonstrated that the hole dynamics can be described in the overdamped regime in both light-hole and heavy-hole cases. Electrons have to be described by including ballistic components. The theory allows an efficient simulation of the electron and hole dynamics in the vicinity of a defect cluster and demonstrates that local trapping centres are the major components enabling fast charge recombinations. The dipolar type internal fields of permanently trapped charges only weakly influence the charge recombination kinetics.