Charge collection efficiencies and reverse current densities of GaAs detectors

Abstract GaAs surface barrier diodes with different areas have been fabricated and tested as particle detectors. It is shown that the reverse current is affected both by the area of the Schottky contact and by its circumference. The charge collection properties can be explained on the basis of a model that takes into account trapping effects and the distribution of the electric field within the detector. From this model (several) rules for optimizing GaAs detectors are derived.