Gallium Nitride Schottky betavoltaic nuclear batteries

• Published in: Energy conversion and management Vol. 52; no. 4; pp. 1955 - 1958
• Main Authors: Lu, Min, Zhang, Guo-guang, Fu, Kai, Yu, Guo-hao, Su, Dan, Hu, Ji-feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Batteries; Betavoltaic; Carrier density; Density; Direct energy conversion and energy accumulation; Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering; Electrical power engineering; Electrochemical conversion: primary and secondary batteries, fuel cells; Exact sciences and technology; Gallium Nitride; Gallium nitrides; Nitrides; Nuclear battery; Open circuit voltage; Schottky diodes; Thick films; Volt-ampere characteristics; Nuclear battery; Gallium Nitride; Betavoltaic; Performance evaluation; Gallium; Short circuit currents; Output power; Voltage current curve; High density; Conversion rate; Photoluminescence; Secondary cell; Particle suspension; X ray diffraction; Chemical vapor deposition; MOCVD; Open circuit voltage; Dislocation density; Crystalline material; Charge collection; Thick film; Manufacturing process; Nickel; Schottky barrier diode
• ISSN: 0196-8904; 1879-2227
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2010.10.048

► Gallium Nitride nuclear batteries with Ni-63 are demonstrated for the first time. ► Open circuit voltage of 0.1 V and conversion efficiency of 0.32% have been obtained. ► The limited performance is due to thin effective energy deposition layer. ► The output power is expected to greatly increase with growing thick GaN films. Gallium Nitride (GaN) Schottky betavoltaic nuclear batteries (GNBB) are demonstrated in our work for the first time. GaN films are grown on sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and then GaN Schottky diodes are fabricated by normal micro-fabrication process. Nickel with mass number of 63 ( 63Ni), which emits β particles, is loaded on the GaN Schottky diodes to achieve GNBB. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) are carried out to investigate the crystal quality for the GaN films as grown. Current–voltage ( I– V) characteristics shows that the GaN Schottky diodes are not jet broken down at −200 V due to consummate fabrication processes, and the open circuit voltage of the GNBB is 0.1 V and the short circuit current density is 1.2 nA cm −2. The limited performance of the GNBB is due to thin effective energy deposition layer, which is only 206 nm to absorb very small partial energy of the β particles because of the relatively high dislocation density and carrier concentration. However, the conversion efficiency of 0.32% and charge collection efficiency (CCE) of 29% for the GNBB have been obtained. Therefore, the output power of the GNBB are expected to greatly increase with growing high quality thick GaN films.