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

Document Type

Article

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.