As a newest family member of the III-nitrides, BN is considered amongst the remaining frontiers in wide energy bandgap semiconductors with potentials for technologically significant applications in deep UV (DUV) optoelectronics, solid-state neutron detectors, electron emitters, single photon emitters, switching/memory devices, and super-capacitors. It was shown that it is possible to produce h-BN epilayers with high hexagonal phase purity, UV transparency, and film stoichiometry by employing nitrogen-rich growth conditions. The quasi-2D nature of h-BN supports unusually strong optical transitions near the band edge and a large exciton binding energy on the order of 0.7 eV. Since the isotope of B-10 has a large capture cross-section for thermal neutrons, h-BN is an ideal material for the fabrication of solid-state neutron detectors for special nuclear materials detection, well and geothermal logging, and medical imaging applications. Freestanding B-10 enriched h-BN (h-10BN) epilayers with varying thicknesses up to 200 μm have been successfully synthesized by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) as of this writing. By utilizing the conductivity anisotropy nature of h-BN, 1 cm2 lateral detectors fabricated from 100 μm thick h-10BN epilayers have demonstrated a detection efficiency of 59% for thermal neutrons, which is the highest on record among all solid-state neutron detectors as of today. It was noted that high growth temperatures, long growth times and the use of sapphire substrate tend to incorporate oxygen related impurities into h-10BN epilayers, which strongly impacted the carrier mobility-lifetime (μτ) products and charge collection efficiencies of h-10BN neutron detectors. As the h-BN material technology further develops, improved carrier mobilities and μτ products will allow the fabrication of h-BN devices with enhanced performance.
Maity, A., Grenadier, S. J., Li, J., Lin, J. Y., & Jiang, H. X. (2020). Hexagonal boron nitride: Epitaxial growth and device applications. Progress in Quantum Electronics, 76(C). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pquantelec.2020.100302
Maity, A., Grenadier, S. J., Li, J., et al., "Hexagonal boron nitride: Epitaxial growth and device applications," Progress in Quantum Electronics 76, no. C (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pquantelec.2020.100302
@article{osti_1848323,
author = {Maity, A. and Grenadier, S. J. and Li, J. and Lin, J. Y. and Jiang, H. X.},
title = {Hexagonal boron nitride: Epitaxial growth and device applications},
annote = {As a newest family member of the III-nitrides, BN is considered amongst the remaining frontiers in wide energy bandgap semiconductors with potentials for technologically significant applications in deep UV (DUV) optoelectronics, solid-state neutron detectors, electron emitters, single photon emitters, switching/memory devices, and super-capacitors. It was shown that it is possible to produce h-BN epilayers with high hexagonal phase purity, UV transparency, and film stoichiometry by employing nitrogen-rich growth conditions. The quasi-2D nature of h-BN supports unusually strong optical transitions near the band edge and a large exciton binding energy on the order of 0.7 eV. Since the isotope of B-10 has a large capture cross-section for thermal neutrons, h-BN is an ideal material for the fabrication of solid-state neutron detectors for special nuclear materials detection, well and geothermal logging, and medical imaging applications. Freestanding B-10 enriched h-BN (h-10BN) epilayers with varying thicknesses up to 200 μm have been successfully synthesized by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) as of this writing. By utilizing the conductivity anisotropy nature of h-BN, 1 cm2 lateral detectors fabricated from 100 μm thick h-10BN epilayers have demonstrated a detection efficiency of 59% for thermal neutrons, which is the highest on record among all solid-state neutron detectors as of today. It was noted that high growth temperatures, long growth times and the use of sapphire substrate tend to incorporate oxygen related impurities into h-10BN epilayers, which strongly impacted the carrier mobility-lifetime (μτ) products and charge collection efficiencies of h-10BN neutron detectors. As the h-BN material technology further develops, improved carrier mobilities and μτ products will allow the fabrication of h-BN devices with enhanced performance.},
doi = {10.1016/j.pquantelec.2020.100302},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1848323},
journal = {Progress in Quantum Electronics},
issn = {ISSN 0079-6727},
number = {C},
volume = {76},
place = {United States},
publisher = {Elsevier},
year = {2020},
month = {11}}
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 591, Issue 3https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2008.03.002
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 606, Issue 3https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2009.05.020
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 654, Issue 1https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2011.07.040
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 748https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2014.02.031
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 783https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2015.02.045