Silicon Carbide Neutron Detector for High Temperature and Harsh Environment Application

Silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor is a candidate material for radiation detector, which can be used at high temperature and harsh environment applications. The large energy bandgap of the SiC semiconductor leads to the radiation hardness, and the high electron and hole mobility lead to the fast signal collection. When a 6LiF layer is deposited on the SiC detector, the SiC detector can be used to measure neutron. The neutron measurement at high temperature and high dose environment is important especially in the spent fuel and nuclear reactor monitor. The operation properties of SiC detector at high temperature and high radiation field were measured in the present work. The SiC detector was PIN diode. The size of the detector was 5 mm × 5 mm, and the total thickness was 406.2 µm. Ti/Au metal electrodes with diameter of 3 mm were deposited on both sides of the PID diode. Neutrons with fluence up to 1.6 × 1018 n/cm2 were irradiated on the detector. Gamma-rays with radiation dose of 2.8 ~ 8.1 MGy were irradiated on the detector. The detector performances such as leakage current and the alpha energy spectrum were measured before and after the irradiation. The leakage current of the detector was also measured as the temperature of the detector was increased up to 350 ?. The real time measurement of the nuclear reactor power with SiC detector was included in this work.