Silicon carbide detectors for high flux neutron monitoring at near-core locations

Praneeth Kandlakunta, Chuting Tan, Nathan Smith, Sha Xue, Neil Taylor, R. Gregory Downing, Vasil Hlinka, Lei R. Cao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors are two detector candidates for high flux neutron monitoring entailing high temperature and high radiation environments owing to their wide band gap and high resistance to radiation damage. While the neutron elastic scattering with carbon (C) and silicon (Si) makes SiC intrinsically sensitive to neutrons, neutron interaction with nitrogen (N) by way of 14N(n,p)14C reaction provides neutron sensitivity to GaN. In this study, we investigated reactor-based high flux neutron monitoring with in-house fabricated SiC detectors and studied the feasibility of neutron detection using GaN. As proof-of-concept for GaN neutron sensitivity, we evaluated SiC detectors coupled with nitrogen based (N-based) neutron converter materials, and commercially purchased AlGaN photo sensors. Spectral response as well as raw waveform data from SiC, SiC coupled with N-based converter layers, and AlGaN sensors were acquired while exposing the detectors to a mixed neutron–gamma field of a research reactor at ex-core locations at various power levels. The experimental SiC detector spectra were compared against Geant4 Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, which agreed with the measurement results. The reactor power determined using SiC detector raw data correlated well with that indicated by a standard compensated ion chamber (CIC). The AlGaN sensors showed promising results with a correlation between sensor response and reactor power. The current study demonstrates SiC as a suitable detector for high flux neutron monitoring with good radiation tolerance based on near-core irradiation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number163110
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume953
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 11 2020
Externally publishedYes

Funding

The authors are thankful to the reactor staff at The Ohio State University Nuclear Reactor Lab for their assistance in conducting experiments in the thermal column. This research is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase I, Engineering Grants award No.: DE-SC0018861 . This research is also supported in part by the U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency under Grant HDTRA11910024 . The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Lei Cao has an equity interest in AwareAbility Technologies LLC with an agreement managed by The Ohio State University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies. The authors are thankful to the reactor staff at The Ohio State University Nuclear Reactor Lab for their assistance in conducting experiments in the thermal column. This research is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase I, Engineering Grants award No.: DE-SC0018861. This research is also supported in part by the U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency under Grant HDTRA11910024. The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Lei Cao has an equity interest in AwareAbility Technologies LLC with an agreement managed by The Ohio State University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.

Keywords

  • Gallium nitride
  • High-flux neutron monitoring
  • Neutron detector
  • Nitrogen converter
  • Research reactor
  • Silicon carbide

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