ARI-SA: A NOVEL SOLID-STATE SELF POWERED NEUTRON DETECTOR

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

0736104 Danon The objective of this research is to develop a new type of thermal neutron detector based on coupling a high neutron cross-section material with specially fabricated solar cell type devices that are multi-layered. The detector includes a high cross section conversion material such as B-10 or Li-6 sandwiched by two or more solar cell type devices. The neutrons interact in the conversion layer by the (n,alpha) reaction and the energetic alpha is detected by the solar cell type devices. The research includes a novel detector design to improve the detection efficiency significantly. Deep reactive ion etching that is used in MEMS technology will be used to fabricate an array of vertical solar-cell type neutron detectors that will increase the conversion material content and thus significantly increase the detection efficiency. Students will be educated in the area of nuclear detector development that includes radiation interaction with matter and solid- state detector fabrication.