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The performance of a high-resistance semiconductor detector based on h-\(^{10}\)BN with thermal neutron detection capability

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Abstract

Research on the semiconductors available for thermal neutron detection is of great significance for the development of thermal neutron detection technology and alleviating the dependence on rare \(^3\)He resources. Hexagonal boron nitride (h-\(^{10}\)BN) materials have attracted wide attention in the thermal neutron detection field because of their higher \(^{10}\)B content and unique two-dimensional layered lattice structure. Based on the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method, a 70 \(\upmu \hbox {m}\) h-\(^{10}\)BN semiconductor detector was fabricated and experimentally studied. The product of the carrier mobility and lifetime (\(\mu \tau\)) of the semiconductor was 1.62\(\times 10^{-7}\) \(\hbox {cm}^2\)/V. The time response of the detector was less than 12 ns, and the charge collection efficiency (CCE) was more than 90%. The effects on detection performance of the electric field distribution were studied. At 700 V, the maximum depth at which charges were able to be collected was approximately 50 \(\upmu \hbox {m}\). The energy spectrum of the h-\(^{10}\)BN to thermal neutrons was observed with distinct peaks. The results indicate that h-\(^{10}\)BN has great potential in thermal neutron detection due to its high reaction section, compact volume and short trapping distance.

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Acknowledgements

This work is funded by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 12050005, 12105230).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Intense Pulsed Radiation Simulation and Effect, Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, Xi’an, 710024, China

    Shiyi He, Fangbao Wang, Liang Chen, Yang Li, Jinlu Ruan & Xiaoping Ouyang

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  1. Shiyi He
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  2. Fangbao Wang
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  3. Liang Chen
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  4. Yang Li
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  5. Jinlu Ruan
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Contributions

HS contributed to methodology, formal analysis, writing–original draft preparation. WF contributed to methodology, validation, supervision. CL contributed to conceptualization, writing–review and editing. LY contributed to investigation, visualization, software. RJ contributed to data curation, funding acquisition. OX contributed to conceptualization, project administration.

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Correspondence to Liang Chen.

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He, S., Wang, F., Chen, L. et al. The performance of a high-resistance semiconductor detector based on h-\(^{10}\)BN with thermal neutron detection capability. J Mater Sci 58, 12288–12297 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08795-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08795-8

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