Efficiencies of coated and perforated semiconductor neutron detectors

Development of 10B2O3 processing for use as a neutron conversion material

“…In order to determine whether a detector design based on 10 B 2 O 3 can feasibly achieve a high intrinsic efficiency , we have calculated the probability of neutron capture for 10 3 . This translates to an increase in neutron mean free path (λ) from 18 μm to 53 μm.…”

“…Reliable detectors are needed in a large number of form factors with different size and performance requirements. Currently, 3 He filled gas tubes are the standard for thermal neutron detection the in field. In response to the diminishing supply of available 3 He and the rapidly increasing demand for thermal neutron detectors, a number of technologies are being explored.…”

“…These include boron-10-( 10 B) lined gaseous tubes, boron-10-triflouride ( 10 BF 3 ) -filled tubes, lithium-6-( 6 Li) doped scintillators, and other semiconductor based platforms utilizing 6 Li [1][2][3][4], 10 B or 10 B containing compounds [5][6][7][8][9][10] such as boron nitride, boron carbide [11] and boron phosphide. Our group has been developing a 3-dimenstional (3d) Si based "Pillar Detector," first reported in 2005 by Nikolic et al [8] with 10 B as the thermal neutron conversion material.…”

“…McGregor et al have developed a design based on 6 LiF in perforations, also a promising approach based on a 3d geometry. [1][2][3][4] Typically, thermal neutron detectors operate on similar principles, relying on an isotope with a high thermal neutron cross-section such as 3 He, 10 B, 6 Li,157 Gd and 113 Cd. An incident thermal neutron interacts with the neutron sensitive material, resulting in a nuclear reaction.…”

The all boron carbide diode neutron detector: Comparison with theory

“…An all boron carbide solid state diode detector should exhibit a distinctly different pulse height spectrum [13] than a device where the neutron capture is not an integral part of the diode: a device where a thin boron rich layer is instead placed adjacent to a diode (commonly called a conversion layer device) [12][13][14][15]. A number of boron based conversion layer neutron detector diode devices have been fabricated [5,12,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], as well as some heterojunction diode detectors [1][2][3]5].…”