Properties of 4H silicon carbide detectors in the radiation detection of 86 MeV oxygen particles

Two 4H silicon carbide (SiC) radiation detectors based on Schottky diode were fabricated with high-quality lightly doped 4H-SiC epitaxial layer with sensitive volumes of 5 mm × 5 mm × 20 μm and 3 mm × 3 mm × 100 μm; their dark current were in the range of 0.3 pA to 63 nA at a bias voltage of 600 V. These detectors were used in detection of alpha particles (emitted by ²³⁷Np, ²³⁸Pu, ²⁴³Am and ²⁴⁴Cm source) and oxygen particles (generated by the HI-13 accelerator with energy of 86 MeV). The experiment results showed that both detectors worked stably with a charge collection efficiency nearly 99.3% and an energy resolution of 1%–3%, demonstrating their, wide application prospect in the detection of charged particles and especially in heavy charged particles.