Improvements in Realizing 4H-SiC Thermal Neutron Detectors

¹ IM2NP (UMR CNRS 7334) – Aix-Marseille University, Case 231 -13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France
² KIT- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Neutron Physics and Reactor Technology, Karlsruhe 76344 Germany
³ SCK•CEN, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
⁴ CEA, DEN, DER, Instrumentation Sensors and Dosimetry Laboratory, Cadarache, 13108 St-Paul-Lez-Durance, France
⁵ University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1048 Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway
⁶ AMPERE (UMR 5005) – INSA de Lyon, 21 Av. Capelle, 69621 Villeurbanne, France
⁷ KTH-ICT, P.O. Box Electrum 229, 16440 Kista, Sweden

^a Corresponding author: e-mail: fatima.issa@im2np.fr

Published online: 3 February 2016

Abstract

In this work we presented two types of 4H-SiC semiconductor detectors (D1 and D2) both based on ion implantation of ¹⁰B inside the aluminum metallic contact. The first detector shows a high leakage current after the implantation and low signal to noise ratio. However, improvements concerning the implantation parameters and the distance between the implanted ¹⁰B thermal neutron converter layer and the active pn-junction have led to low leakage current and thus to higher signal to noise ratio. This proves the strength of this new method of realizing sensitive SiC-based thermal neutron detectors.