Abstract
Third-generation semiconductor materials have a wide band gap, high thermal conductivity, high chemical stability and strong radiation resistance. These materials have broad application prospects in optoelectronics, high-temperature and high-power equipment and radiation detectors. In this work, thin-film solid state neutron detectors made of four third-generation semiconductor materials are studied. Geant4 10.7 was used to analyze and optimize detectors. The optimal thicknesses required to achieve the highest detection efficiency for the four materials are studied. The optimized materials include diamond, silicon carbide (SiC), gallium oxide (GaO) and gallium nitride (GaN), and the converter layer materials are boron carbide (BC) and lithium fluoride (LiF) with a natural enrichment of boron and lithium. With optimal thickness, the primary knock-on atom (PKA) energy spectrum and displacements per atom (DPA) are studied to provide an indication of the radiation hardness of the four materials. The gamma rejection capabilities and electron collection efficiency (ECE) of these materials have also been studied. This work will contribute to manufacturing radiation-resistant, high-temperature-resistant and fast response neutron detectors. It will facilitate reactor monitoring, high-energy physics experiments and nuclear fusion research.
Highlights
Gas detectors, scintillator detectors and semiconductor detectors are the most common detectors for neutron detection
The diamond with the B4C converter layer has the best performance in thickness optimization, gamma rejection capability, radiation hardness and charge collection
If the cost of diamond can be significantly reduced, diamond neutron detectors will be a good candidate for commercial applications
Summary
Scintillator detectors and semiconductor detectors are the most common detectors for neutron detection. Gas detectors and scintillator detectors have a high neutron detection efficiency and good time response [1,2]. They are relatively sensitive to gamma rays, and their sensitive volumes are more significant than semiconductor detectors. Semiconductor neutron detectors have a relatively low detection efficiency, their small size, fast response and insensitivity to gamma rays make them a good candidate for neutron detection under extreme environments, especially for wide band gap semiconductors. For thin-film semiconductor neutron detectors, the detection efficiency will increase as the thickness of the semiconductor increases. To find the optimal thickness for neutron detection, the diode thicknesses for Si, C, GaAs and CdTe thin-film solid state neutron detectors were optimised [3]
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