Radiation Sensor:
Wide band semiconductors, e.g. SiC, Perovskite
Embedded Files
Wide band-gap semiconductors provide an excellent platform for radiation detectors due to their low leakage current at high temperatures, high breakdown voltage, and superior thermal conductivity. This is a rich research area, and we have established and are building several active directions. Our work includes silicon carbide (SiC) applications in alpha spectroscopy, fast neutron detection, high-temperature operation, low-energy X-ray detection, and SiC-based photodiodes, SiC-APD. We are also developing SiC nuclear-voltaic batteries and exploring SiC quantum sensors.
Here is an example of a silicon carbide detector application. A SiC sensor was packaged (see Figure 13a for its structure) and immersed in molten salt within a crucible inside a benchtop furnace (see Figure 13b for the experimental setup). The detector surface was electrodeposited with uranium. After plating, the detector was removed from the salt and measured for its alpha spectrum, originating from the uranium deposited on its surface. This application demonstrates the potential of SiC detectors for nuclear materials accounting and monitoring in molten salt environments.
See the full paper: Harris, N. C., H. Yang, J. Ge, J. Zhang, J. Coble, S. Skutnik, N. R. Taylor, J. Jarrell, T. E. Blue, L. Cao, and M. Simpson. "University research to support the MPACT 2020 milestone." Journal of Nuclear Materials Management, 49, no. 1 (2021): 136-151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-022-00960-1
SiC Alpha Spectroscopy
We fabricated a silicon carbide epitaxial layer device in a cleanroom, featuring a 20 μm nitrogen-doped layer (2.0 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻³). The device incorporates a nickel Schottky contact (50 nm, 1–10 mm² area) and a titanium/gold ohmic contact stack (50/100 nm). The measured Schottky barrier height was 1.63 eV, compared to the theoretical 1.91 eV, with full depletion achieved at 75 V for the 20 μm layer. Below is the highest resolution obtained with an Am-241 source, which approaches the intrinsic resolution limit of Am-241 in SiC.
2. SiC high temperature performance
For the high-temperature performance of SiC detectors, the standard thermionic-field emission (TFE) model did not adequately match our experimental results at a reverse bias of 60 V. By incorporating the field-emission (FE) mechanism, a unified TFE-FE model was developed, which provided an excellent fit to the experimental data.
3.
SiC leakage current ~1 pA @ 200 V reverse bias, without field plate, guard ring or mesa structure, leakage current at nA level at 900 V
§ P. Kandlakunta, L. R. Cao, P. Mulligan, "Measurement of Internal Conversion Electrons from Gd Neutron Capture," Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Vol. 705, 36 - 41. 2013.
§ Praneeth Kandlakunta, Lei Cao, "Gamma ray rejection, or detection, with gadolinium as a converter," Radiation Protection Dosimetry. Vol. 149, no. 2: 1-5. 2012.
§ D. Turkoglu, J. Burke, R. Lewandowski, L. Cao, "Characterization of a new external neutron beam facility at the Ohio State University," Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry. Vol. 291, no. 2: 321-327. 2012.
§ Hardtmayer, Douglas, Kevin Herminghuysen, Susan White, Andrew Kauffman, Jeff Sanders, Shelly Li, and Lei Cao. "Determination of molten salt mass using 22Na tracer mixed with 154 Eu and 137Cs." Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 318, no. 1 (2018): 457-463.
§ Cao, Lei, Josh Jarrell, Susan White, Kevin Herminghuysen, Andrew Kauffman, Douglas E. Hardtmayer, Jeff Sanders, and Shelly Li. "A radioactive tracer dilution method to determine the mass of molten salt." Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 314, no. 1 (2017): 387-393.
§ Pan, Lei, Yuanxiang Feng, Jinsong Huang, and Lei R. Cao, "Comparison of Zr, Bi, Ti, and Ga as metal contacts in inorganic perovskite CsPbBr3 Gamma-ray Detector," in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, doi: 10.1109/TNS.2020.3018101.
§ Pan, Lei, Yuanxiang Feng, Praneeth Kandlakunta, Jinsong Huang, and Lei R. Cao. "Performance of Perovskite CsPbBr 3 Single Crystal Detector for Gamma-Ray Detection." IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 67, no. 2 (2020): 443-449.
§ Kandlakunta, Praneeth, Chuting Tan, Nathan Smith, Sha Xue, Neil Taylor, R. Gregory Downing, Vasil Hlinka, and Lei R. Cao. "Silicon carbide detectors for high flux neutron monitoring at near-core locations." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 953 (2020): 163110.
§ Taylor, Neil R., Yongchao Yu, Mihee Ji, Tolga Aytug, Shannon Mahurin, Richard Mayes, Sacit Cetiner et al. "Thermal and radiation response of 4H–SiC Schottky diodes with direct-write electrical contacts." Applied Physics Letters 116, no. 25 (2020): 252108.
§ Holmes, Jason, Jesse Brown, Franz A. Koeck, Holly Johnson, Manpuneet K. Benipal, Praneeth Kandlakunta, Anna Zaniewski et al. "Performance of 5-μm PIN diamond diodes as thermal neutron detectors." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 961 (2020): 163601.
§ Jinghui Wang, Padhraic Mulligan, Len Brillson, Lei Cao, “Review of Using Gallium Nitride for Ionizing Radiation Detection,” Applied Physics Reviews 2 (3), 031102, 2015.
§ Chuting Tan, Robinson James, Bin Dong, M. Sky Driver, Jeffry A. Kelber, Greg Downing, Lei R. Cao. "Characterization of a boron carbide-based polymer neutron sensor," Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A. Vol. 803, 82-88, 2015.
§ P. Mulligan, J.H. Wang, L. R. Cao, "Evaluation of Freestanding GaN as an Alpha and Neutron Detector," Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:. Vol. 719, 13-16. 2013.
§ J.H. Wang, P. Mulligan, L. R. Cao, "Transient Current Analysis of a GaN Radiation Detector by TCAD," Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, Vol. 761, no. 11: 7-12. 2014.
§ Neil Taylor, Nora Alnajjar, Josh Jarrell, Praneeth Kandlakunta, Michael Simpson, Thomas E. Blue, and Lei R. Cao, “Isotopic Concentration of Uranium from Alpha Spectrum of Electrodeposited Source on 4H-SiC Detector”, Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
§ Praneeth Kandlakunta, Lei R. Cao, "Neutron conversion efficiency and gamma interference with gadolinium," Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry. Vol. 300, no. 3: 953-961. 2014.
§ Wang, Lei, Josh Jarrell, Sha Xue, Chuting Tan, Thomas Blue, and Lei R. Cao. "Fast neutron detection at near-core location of a research reactor with a SiC detector." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 888 (2018): 126-131.
§ Wei, Haotong, Dylan DeSantis, Wei Wei, Yehao Deng, Dengyang Guo, Tom J. Savenije, Lei Cao, and Jinsong Huang. "Dopant compensation in alloyed CH 3 NH 3 PbBr3xCl1-x perovskite single crystals for gamma-ray spectroscopy." Nature materials 16, no. 8 (2017): 826.
§ Haotong Wei, Yanjun Fang, Padhraic Mulligan, William Chuirazzi, Hong-Hua Fang, Congcong Wang, Benjamin R. Ecker, Yongli Gao, Maria Antonietta Loi, Lei Cao, Jinsong Huang, "Sensitive X-ray detectors made of methylammonium lead tribromide perovskite single crystals," Nature Photonics. Vol. 10, 333–339. 2016.
§ Yang, Shuang, Zeyuan Xu, Sha Xue, Praneeth Kandlakunta, Lei Cao, and Jinsong Huang. "Organohalide Lead Perovskites: More Stable than Glass under Gamma‐Ray Radiation." Advanced Materials (2018): 1805547. (Role: project co-PI, advised students, wrote part of the paper)
Sha Xue, Chuting Tan, Praneeth Kandlakunta, Ibrahim Oksuz, Vasil Hlinka, Lei R. Cao, "Method to improve power conversion efficiency of nuclear voltaic battery" Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, (2018, DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2019.01.097)
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse