Silicon sensors with pyramidal structures for neutron imaging

Abstract

Neutron detection is a valuable tool in nuclear science research, homeland security, quality assurance in nuclear plants and medical applications. Recent developments and near future instrumentations in neutron imaging have a need for sensors with high spatial resolution, dynamic range, sensitivity and background discrimination. Silicon based neutron detectors can potentially fulfil these requirements. In this work, pad and pixel detectors with pyramidal micro-structures have been successfully fabricated that should have an improved detection efficiency when compared to conventional planar devices. Titanium di-boride (TiB2) and lithium fluoride (LiF) were deposited as the neutron converters. Excellent electrical performances were measured on both simple pad and pixel detectors. A selection of pad detectors was examined by alpha spectroscopy. Measurement with thermal neutrons from a 241Am-Be source shows an improvement in relative efficiency of up to 38% when compared to conventional planar devices.