The investigation of noise in hard radiation detectors by pulse-amplitude analysis

The potentialities of pulse-amplitude analysis for noise measurements are d emonstrated with p(+)-n silicon detectors. It is suggested to use the detec tor current as a parameter and vary it by illuminating the samples. The ins trument was calibrated by the shot noise of the photocurrent. The criteria for shot noise are the linearity of the noise squared vs. current dependenc e and its slope. It is shown that conventional instrumentation for pulse-am plitude analysis provides accurate yet rapid noise investigation. For the d etectors studied, flicker noise was absent even when the trapped charge in the field oxide increases by one order of magnitude. (C) 2000 MAIK "Nauka/I nterperiodica".