Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ahmed, K.
• Dahal, R.
• Weltz, A.
• Lu, James J.-Q.
• Danon, Y.
• Bhat, I. B.

Titel

Solid-state neutron detectors based on thickness scalable hexagonal boron nitride

Ist Teil von

• Applied physics letters, 2017-01, Vol.110 (2)

Ort / Verlag

Melville: American Institute of Physics

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

AIP Journals (American Institute of Physics)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paper reports on the device processing and characterization of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) based solid-state thermal neutron detectors, where hBN thickness varied from 2.5 to 15 μm. These natural hBN epilayers (with 19.9% 10B) were grown by a low pressure chemical vapor deposition process. Complete dry processing was adopted for the fabrication of these metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) configuration detectors. These detectors showed intrinsic thermal neutron detection efficiency values of 0.86%, 2.4%, 3.15%, and 4.71% for natural hBN thickness values of 2.5, 7.5, 10, and 15 μm, respectively. Measured efficiencies are very close (≥92%) to the theoretical maximum efficiencies for corresponding hBN thickness values for these detectors. This clearly shows the hBN thickness scalability of these detectors. A 15 μm thick hBN based MSM detector is expected to yield an efficiency of 21.4% if enriched hBN (with ∼100% 10B) is used instead of natural hBN. These results demonstrate that the fabrication of hBN thickness scalable highly efficient thermal neutron detectors is possible.