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Title: Solution-Grown Rubrene Crystals as Radiation Detecting Devices

Abstract

There has been increased interest in organic semiconductors over the last decade because of their unique properties. Of these, 5, 6, 11, 12-tetraphenylnaphthacene (rubrene) has generated the most interest because of its high charge carrier mobility. In this paper, large single crystals with a volume of ~1 cm3 were grown from solution by a temperature reduction technique. The faceted crystals had flat surfaces and cm-scale, visually defect-free areas suitable for physical characterization. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that solvent does not incorporate into the crystals and photoluminescence spectra are consistent with pristine, high-crystallinity rubrene. Furthermore, the response curve to pulsed optical illumination indicates that the solution grown crystals are of similar quality to those grown by physical vapor transport, albeit larger. The good quality of these crystals in combination with the improvement of electrical contacts by application of conductive polymer on the graphite electrodes have led to the clear observation of alpha particles with these rubrene detectors. Finally, preliminary results with a 252Cf source generate a small signal with the rubrene detector and may demonstrate that rubrene can also be used for detecting high-energy neutrons.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
1373660
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-675862
Journal ID: ISSN 0018-9499; TRN: US1702204
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344; DTRA10027-14474
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 64; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0018-9499
Publisher:
IEEE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; crystals; neutrons; detectors; temperature measurement; solvents; scintillators; crystallizers; alpha-particle detection; carrier mobility; conducting polymers; crystal growth from solution; graphite; organic semiconductors; photoluminescence; semiconductor counters; X-ray diffraction

Citation Formats

Carman, Leslie, Martinez, H. Paul, Voss, Lars, Hunter, Steven, Beck, Patrick, Zaitseva, Natalia, Payne, Stephen A., Irkhin, Pavel, Choi, Hyun Ho, and Podzorov, Vitaly. Solution-Grown Rubrene Crystals as Radiation Detecting Devices. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1109/TNS.2017.2652139.
Carman, Leslie, Martinez, H. Paul, Voss, Lars, Hunter, Steven, Beck, Patrick, Zaitseva, Natalia, Payne, Stephen A., Irkhin, Pavel, Choi, Hyun Ho, & Podzorov, Vitaly. Solution-Grown Rubrene Crystals as Radiation Detecting Devices. United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2017.2652139
Carman, Leslie, Martinez, H. Paul, Voss, Lars, Hunter, Steven, Beck, Patrick, Zaitseva, Natalia, Payne, Stephen A., Irkhin, Pavel, Choi, Hyun Ho, and Podzorov, Vitaly. 2017. "Solution-Grown Rubrene Crystals as Radiation Detecting Devices". United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2017.2652139. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1373660.
@article{osti_1373660,
title = {Solution-Grown Rubrene Crystals as Radiation Detecting Devices},
author = {Carman, Leslie and Martinez, H. Paul and Voss, Lars and Hunter, Steven and Beck, Patrick and Zaitseva, Natalia and Payne, Stephen A. and Irkhin, Pavel and Choi, Hyun Ho and Podzorov, Vitaly},
abstractNote = {There has been increased interest in organic semiconductors over the last decade because of their unique properties. Of these, 5, 6, 11, 12-tetraphenylnaphthacene (rubrene) has generated the most interest because of its high charge carrier mobility. In this paper, large single crystals with a volume of ~1 cm3 were grown from solution by a temperature reduction technique. The faceted crystals had flat surfaces and cm-scale, visually defect-free areas suitable for physical characterization. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that solvent does not incorporate into the crystals and photoluminescence spectra are consistent with pristine, high-crystallinity rubrene. Furthermore, the response curve to pulsed optical illumination indicates that the solution grown crystals are of similar quality to those grown by physical vapor transport, albeit larger. The good quality of these crystals in combination with the improvement of electrical contacts by application of conductive polymer on the graphite electrodes have led to the clear observation of alpha particles with these rubrene detectors. Finally, preliminary results with a 252Cf source generate a small signal with the rubrene detector and may demonstrate that rubrene can also be used for detecting high-energy neutrons.},
doi = {10.1109/TNS.2017.2652139},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1373660}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science},
issn = {0018-9499},
number = 2,
volume = 64,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Wed Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Room temperature semiconductor detectors for nuclear security
journal, July 2019


Critical Review of Scintillating Crystals for Neutron Detection
journal, September 2019