Electrical Characteristics and Fast Neutron Response of Semi-Insulating Bulk Silicon Carbide

The electrical characteristics and fast neutron response of a High Temperature Chemical Vapour Deposition (HTCVD) grown semi-insulating bulk SiC wafer has been measured. Current-Voltage measurements demonstrated a low leakage current in the region of 10 -10 to 10 -12v A with a bulk resistivity of at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 60; no. 2; pp. 1432 - 1435
Main Authors Bryant, P. A., Lohstroh, A., Sellin, P. J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.04.2013
Subjects
Detectors
Electric variables
Neutron detection
Neutrons
Radiation effects
Silicon
Silicon carbide
Silicon devices
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Summary:The electrical characteristics and fast neutron response of a High Temperature Chemical Vapour Deposition (HTCVD) grown semi-insulating bulk SiC wafer has been measured. Current-Voltage measurements demonstrated a low leakage current in the region of 10 -10 to 10 -12v A with a bulk resistivity of at least 10 12 -10 13 Ω.cm. Alpha particle spectroscopy measurements demonstrated an electron charge collection efficiency of up to 90% with reasonable reproducibility of the acquired spectra. Evidence of (incident particle) rate dependent polarisation was seen following a constant applied bias combined with alpha irradiation over a period of time (order of tens of minutes). The ability of the wafer to detect fast neutrons was demonstrated and a comparison drawn with the MCNPX simulated response of a bulk SiC device. Comparing the MCNPX simulated response of a bulk SiC device to that of a silicon device suggests a superior ability to detect fast neutrons with an intrinsic efficiency 1.7 times that of silicon.
ISSN:0018-9499
1558-1578
DOI:10.1109/TNS.2013.2243753