Study of the properties of silicon-based semiconductor converters for betavoltaic cells

Abstract

Silicon p-i-n diodes are studied in a scanning electron microscope under conditions simulating the β radiation from a radioactive Ni 63 source with an activity of 10 mCi/cm 2 . The attainable parameters of β voltaic cells with a source of this kind and a silicon based converter of β particle energy to electric current are estimated. It is shown that the power of elements of this kind can reach values of ~10 nW/cm 2 even for a cell with an area of one centimeter, which is rather close to the calculated value.

Review—Betavoltaic Cell: The Past, Present, and Future

“…The small variation in the resistance (20%) is far superior to the same index for silicon devices (200%). 54 GaN-based betavoltaic batteries.-Gallium nitride is the thirdgeneration wide-bandgap semiconductor material that has received widespread attention. Compared with silicon materials, gallium arsenide materials and silicon carbide materials, the betavoltaic battery based on Gallium nitride materials exhibits higher V oc , San et al reported a betavoltaic battery with 63 Ni as radioactive source and GaN as semiconductor converter which was grown using low-pressure metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) system.…”

Silicon switch: Carbon–silicon Bioisosteric replacement as a strategy to modulate the selectivity, physicochemical, and drug‐like properties in anticancer pharmacophores

“…Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass) after oxygen and is present in teramole quantities in the oceans, primarily in the form of silicic acid (Armbrust, 2009; Ruecker & Kuemmerer, 2015; Struyf et al, 2010; Treguer et al, 1995). As such, it is only natural for silicon‐based materials to play a critical role in a large number of consumer goods and commodity chemicals, including polymers (adhesives, coatings, sealants, gels, foams, aerosols, encapsulants, and preservatives) (Li et al, 2021; Miao et al, 2022; Petric, 2018; Ruecker & Kuemmerer, 2015), semi‐conductors (Kim et al, 2011; Polikarpov & Yakimov, 2015; Reece et al, 2011), agrochemical and biomedical agents (Lazareva et al, 2018; Lazareva & Lazarev, 2015; Peng et al, 2014; Zhou et al, 2022). However, despite a high abundance of silicon and silicates in the Earth's crust and the large number of organosilicon compounds generated in laboratory settings, organosilicon species have not yet been found in nature either as primary or secondary metabolites, to the best of our knowledge, with the involvement of silicon in the biochemistry of many organisms remaining elusive (Petkowski et al, 2020).…”

Simulation of the Properties of Betavoltaic Cells Based on Silicon and 63Ni Enriched Film

“…The Monte Carlo simulation program developed in [8,9] took into account the distribution of β particles in terms of emission angles, radioactive film thickness, and energy, as well as absorption in a radioisotope film [10], which ensured a more accurate calculation compared to that obtained by approximate methods [11][12][13][14][15]. This procedure was applied to calculate the parameters of a betavoltaic cell based on a POLIKARPOV, YAKIMOV silicon converter and a radioactive 63 Ni source with an activity of 10 mCi/cm 2 [16]. It is of interest to calculate the increase in the power of the betavoltaic cell gained when using a source containing 50% of 63 Ni and a real silicon-based converter and also to estimate the parameters of the cell with a 63 Ni/Si Schottky barrier.…”