Removal of spallation-induced tritium from silicon through diffusion

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Saldanha, R., Reading, D., Warwick, P. E., Chavarria, A. E., Loer, B., Mitra, P., Pagani, L., Privitera, P.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Saldanha, R.
Reading, D.
Warwick, P. E.
Chavarria, A. E.
Loer, B.
Mitra, P.
Pagani, L.
Privitera, P.
author_facet Saldanha, R.
Reading, D.
Warwick, P. E.
Chavarria, A. E.
Loer, B.
Mitra, P.
Pagani, L.
Privitera, P.
contents Tritium, predominantly produced through spallation reactions caused by cosmic ray interactions, is a significant radioactive background for silicon-based rare event detection experiments, such as dark matter searches. We have investigated the feasibility of removing cosmogenic tritium from high-purity silicon intended for use in low-background experiments. We demonstrate that significant tritium removal is possible through diffusion by subjecting silicon to high-temperature (> 400C) baking. Using an analytical model for the de-trapping and diffusion of tritium in silicon, our measurements indicate that cosmogenic tritium diffusion constants are comparable to previous measurements of thermally-introduced tritium, with complete de-trapping and removal achievable above 750C. This approach has the potential to alleviate the stringent constraints of cosmic ray exposure prior to device fabrication and significantly reduce the cosmogenic tritium backgrounds of silicon-based detectors for next-generation rare event searches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_06568
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Removal of spallation-induced tritium from silicon through diffusion
Saldanha, R.
Reading, D.
Warwick, P. E.
Chavarria, A. E.
Loer, B.
Mitra, P.
Pagani, L.
Privitera, P.
Instrumentation and Detectors
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Nuclear Experiment
Tritium, predominantly produced through spallation reactions caused by cosmic ray interactions, is a significant radioactive background for silicon-based rare event detection experiments, such as dark matter searches. We have investigated the feasibility of removing cosmogenic tritium from high-purity silicon intended for use in low-background experiments. We demonstrate that significant tritium removal is possible through diffusion by subjecting silicon to high-temperature (> 400C) baking. Using an analytical model for the de-trapping and diffusion of tritium in silicon, our measurements indicate that cosmogenic tritium diffusion constants are comparable to previous measurements of thermally-introduced tritium, with complete de-trapping and removal achievable above 750C. This approach has the potential to alleviate the stringent constraints of cosmic ray exposure prior to device fabrication and significantly reduce the cosmogenic tritium backgrounds of silicon-based detectors for next-generation rare event searches.
title Removal of spallation-induced tritium from silicon through diffusion
topic Instrumentation and Detectors
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Nuclear Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06568