A class of boron-rich solid-state neutron detectors

Authors

B. W. Robertson, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Shireen Adenwalla, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
A. Harken, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
P. Welsch, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jennifer I. Brand, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Peter A. Dowben, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
J.P. Claassen, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska

Date of this Version

5-13-2002

Comments

Published Applied Physics Letters 80 (2002) 3644-3646. Permission to use.

Abstract

Real-time solid-state neutron detectors have been fabricated from semiconducting boron–carbon alloys, deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Single neutrons were detected and signals induced by gamma rays were determined to be insignificant. The source gas closo-1,2-dicarbadodecaborane (ortho-carborane) was used to fabricate the boron–carbon alloys with only the natural isotopic abundance of ¹⁰B. Devices made of thicker boron–carbon alloy layers enriched in ¹⁰B could lead to increased detection efficiency and active diodes could use the inherent micron scale spatial resolution, increasing the range of possible applications. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.1477942]