Coutinho, José; Torres, Vitor J. B.; Capan, Ivana; Brodar, Tomislav; Ereš, Zoran; Bernat, Robert; Radulović, Vladimir; Ambrožič, Klemen; Snoj, Luka; Pastuović, Željko; Sarbutt, Adam; Ohshima, Takeshi; Yamazaki, Yuichi; Makino, Takahiro (2021) Silicon carbide diodes for neutron detection. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 986 . ISSN 0168-9002
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Abstract
In the last two decades we have assisted to a rush towards finding a 3He-replacing technology capable of detecting neutrons emitted from fissile isotopes. The demand stems from applications like nuclear warhead screening or preventing illicit traffic of radiological materials. Semiconductor detectors stand among the strongest contenders, particularly those based on materials possessing a wide band gap like silicon carbide (SiC). We review the workings of SiC-based neutron detectors, along with several issues related to material properties, device fabrication and testing. The paper summarizes the experimental and theoretical work carried out within the E-SiCure project (Engineering Silicon Carbide for Border and Port Security), co-funded by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. The main goal was the development of technologies to support the fabrication of radiation-hard silicon carbide detectors of special nuclear materials. Among the achievements, we have the development of successful Schottky barrier based detectors and the identification of the main carrier life-time-limiting defects in the SiC active areas, either already present in pristine devices or introduced upon exposure to radiation fields. The physical processes involved in neutron detection are described. Material properties as well as issues related to epitaxial growth and device fabrication are addressed. The presence of defects in as-grown material, as well as those introduced by ionizing radiation are reported. We finally describe several experiments carried out at the Jozef Stefan Institute TRIGA Mark II reactor (Ljubljana, Slovenia), where a set of SiC-based neutron detectors were tested, some of which being equipped with a thermal neutron converter layer. We show that despite the existence of large room for improvement, Schottky barrier diodes based on state-of-the-art 4H-SiC are closing the gap between gasand semiconductor-based detectors regarding their sensitivity.
| Item Type: | Article | ||||||||||||
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | neutron detection; silicon carbide; radiation defects | ||||||||||||
| Subjects: | NATURAL SCIENCES NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics |
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| Divisions: | Division for Marine and Enviromental Research Division of Materials Physics Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials and Sensing Devices |
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| Depositing User: | Virna Brumnić | ||||||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 17 Apr 2026 06:50 | ||||||||||||
| URI: | http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/11746 | ||||||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.nima.2020.164793 |
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