6:1 aspect ratio silicon pillar based thermal neutron detector filled with ¹⁰B

Authors

R. J. Nikolic, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
A. M. Conway, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
C. E. Reinhart, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
R. T. Graff, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
T. F. Wang, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
N. Deo, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Barry Chin Li Cheung, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

10-2008

Comments

Published in Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 133502 (2008). Copyright © 2008 American Institute of Physics. Used by permission.

Abstract

Current helium-3 tube based thermal neutron detectors have shortcomings in achieving simultaneously high efficiency and low voltage while maintaining adequate fieldability performance. By using a three-dimensional silicon p-i-n diode pillar array filled with boron-10 these constraints can be overcome. The fabricated pillar structured detector reported here is composed of 2 μm diameter silicon pillars with a 4 μm pitch and height of 12 μm. A thermal neutron detection efficiency of 7.3+/−0.6% and a neutron-to-gamma discrimination of 10⁵ at 2 V reverse bias were measured for this detector. When scaled to larger aspect ratio, a high efficiency device is possible.