Energy for Electron-Hole Pair Generation in Silicon by Electrons andαParticles

The difference of response of Si semiconductor detectors to $\alpha$ particles and electrons has been tested. The mean energy required for electron-hole pair generation by electrons has been found to be different from that for $\alpha$ particles. These values are, respectively, ${\epsilon }_{\infty }=3.79\mathrm{}\pm 0.01$ and ${\epsilon }_{\infty }=3.61\mathrm{}\pm 0.01$ at a temperature of 300°K for electrons (365 KeV) and $\alpha \text{'}\mathrm{s}$ (5.477 MeV).