Direct thermal neutron detection by the 2D semiconductor 6LiInP2Se6
Highly efficient neutron detectors are critical in many sectors, including national security 1 , 2 , medicine 3 , crystallography 4 and astronomy 5 . The main neutron detection technologies currently used involve 3 He-gas-filled proportional counters 6 and light scintillators 7 for thermalized neutr...
Saved in:
Published in | Nature (London) Vol. 577; no. 7790; pp. 346 - 349 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
16.01.2020
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | Highly efficient neutron detectors are critical in many sectors, including national security
1
,
2
, medicine
3
, crystallography
4
and astronomy
5
. The main neutron detection technologies currently used involve
3
He-gas-filled proportional counters
6
and light scintillators
7
for thermalized neutrons. Semiconductors could provide the next generation of neutron detectors because their advantages could make them competitive with or superior to existing detectors. In particular, solids with a high concentration of high-neutron-capture nuclides (such as
6
Li,
10
B) could be used to develop smaller detectors with high intrinsic efficiencies. However, no promising materials have been reported so far for the construction of direct-conversion semiconductor detectors. Here we report on the semiconductor LiInP
2
Se
6
and demonstrate its potential as a candidate material for the direct detection of thermal neutrons at room temperature. This compound has a good thermal-neutron-capture cross-section, a suitable bandgap (2.06 electronvolts) and a favourable electronic band structure for efficient electron charge transport. We used α particles from an
241
Am source as a proxy for the neutron-capture reaction and determined that the compact two-dimensional (2D) LiInP
2
Se
6
detectors resolved the full-energy peak with an energy resolution of 13.9 per cent. Direct neutron detection from a moderated Pu–Be source was achieved using
6
Li-enriched (95 per cent) LiInP
2
Se
6
detectors with full-peak resolution. We anticipate that these results will spark interest in this field and enable the replacement of
3
He counters by semiconductor-based neutron detectors.
The semiconductor
6
LiInP
2
Se
6
is used for the direct detection of thermal neutrons at room temperature, demonstrating good energy resolution. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 USDOE Office of Science (SC) National Science Foundation (NSF) AC02-06CH11357; ECCS-1542205; DMR-1720139; NCI CA060553 |
ISSN: | 0028-0836 1476-4687 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41586-019-1886-8 |