Interactions between Terrestrial Cosmic-Ray Neutrons and III-V Compound Semiconductors

Daniela Munteanu (1) , Jean-Luc Autran (1)

1 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence

This work explores by numerical simulation the impact of high-energy atmospheric neutrons and their interactions with III–V binary compound semiconductors. The efforts have focused on eight III–V semiconductors: GaAs, AlAs, InP, InAs, GaSb, InSb, GaN, and GaP. For each material, extensive Geant4 numerical simulations have been performed considering a bulk target exposed to a neutron source emulating the atmospheric neutron spectrum at terrestrial level. Results emphasize in detail the reaction rates per type of reaction (elastic, inelastic, nonelastic) and offer a classification of all the neutron-induced secondary products as a function of their atomic number, kinetic energy, initial stopping power, and range. Implications for single-event effects (SEEs) are analyzed and discussed, notably in terms of energy and charge deposited in the bulk material and in the first nanometers of particle range with respect to the critical charge for modern complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies.

Mots clés: radiation effects; III-V compound semiconductors; cosmic-rays; atmospheric neutrons; numerical simulation; neutron cross section; elastic scattering; inelastic scattering; nonelastic interactions; nuclear data library; Geant4

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Daniela Munteanu, Jean-Luc Autran. Interactions between Terrestrial Cosmic-Ray Neutrons and III-V Compound Semiconductors. Modeling and Simulation in Engineering, 2020, 978-953-51-0012-6. ⟨10.5772/intechopen.92774⟩. ⟨hal-02998364⟩