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Title: Lateral charge carrier transport properties of B-10 enriched hexagonal BN thick epilayers

Abstract

Neutron detectors based on B-10 enriched hexagonal boron nitride (h-10BN or h-BN) epilayers have demonstrated the highest thermal neutron detection efficiency among solid-state neutron detectors at about 58%. However, many fundamental transport parameters of h-BN, including the room temperature carrier mobility, minority carrier lifetime, and surface recombination velocity, which are essential to the performance of detectors, are still unknown. Here, we report here the carrier drift mobilities (μ) and lifetimes (τ) of both electrons and holes in h-10BN epilayers measured by using a time-of-flight (TOF) technique. Lateral photoconductive type detectors fabricated from a 65 μm thick freestanding h-10BN epilayer were utilized to carry out the TOF measurements, which revealed μe ~34 cm2/V s for electrons and μh ~36 cm2/V s for holes and carrier lifetimes on the order of tens of microseconds. By combining the values of μ measured from TOF with S/μ (the ratio of the surface recombination velocity to mobility) deduced directly from the bias voltage dependence of photocurrent, S for both electrons (Se ~1.4 × 104 cm/s) and holes (Sh ~2.7 × 103 cm/s) in h-10BN has been extracted. The determination of these important fundamental parameters (μ, τ, and S) not only provides a better understanding ofmore » the carrier dynamics and electrical transport properties of h-BN but is also valuable for further advancing the development of h-BN materials and devices.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
OSTI Identifier:
1571782
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1557337
Grant/Contract Number:  
AR0000964; NA0002927
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Applied Physics Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 115; Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY

Citation Formats

Grenadier, S., Maity, A., Li, J., Lin, J. Y., and Jiang, H. X. Lateral charge carrier transport properties of B-10 enriched hexagonal BN thick epilayers. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5097984.
Grenadier, S., Maity, A., Li, J., Lin, J. Y., & Jiang, H. X. Lateral charge carrier transport properties of B-10 enriched hexagonal BN thick epilayers. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5097984
Grenadier, S., Maity, A., Li, J., Lin, J. Y., and Jiang, H. X. Wed . "Lateral charge carrier transport properties of B-10 enriched hexagonal BN thick epilayers". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5097984. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1571782.
@article{osti_1571782,
title = {Lateral charge carrier transport properties of B-10 enriched hexagonal BN thick epilayers},
author = {Grenadier, S. and Maity, A. and Li, J. and Lin, J. Y. and Jiang, H. X.},
abstractNote = {Neutron detectors based on B-10 enriched hexagonal boron nitride (h-10BN or h-BN) epilayers have demonstrated the highest thermal neutron detection efficiency among solid-state neutron detectors at about 58%. However, many fundamental transport parameters of h-BN, including the room temperature carrier mobility, minority carrier lifetime, and surface recombination velocity, which are essential to the performance of detectors, are still unknown. Here, we report here the carrier drift mobilities (μ) and lifetimes (τ) of both electrons and holes in h-10BN epilayers measured by using a time-of-flight (TOF) technique. Lateral photoconductive type detectors fabricated from a 65 μm thick freestanding h-10BN epilayer were utilized to carry out the TOF measurements, which revealed μe ~34 cm2/V s for electrons and μh ~36 cm2/V s for holes and carrier lifetimes on the order of tens of microseconds. By combining the values of μ measured from TOF with S/μ (the ratio of the surface recombination velocity to mobility) deduced directly from the bias voltage dependence of photocurrent, S for both electrons (Se ~1.4 × 104 cm/s) and holes (Sh ~2.7 × 103 cm/s) in h-10BN has been extracted. The determination of these important fundamental parameters (μ, τ, and S) not only provides a better understanding of the carrier dynamics and electrical transport properties of h-BN but is also valuable for further advancing the development of h-BN materials and devices.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5097984},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 7,
volume = 115,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Wed Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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Cited by: 14 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: (a) Optical microscopy image of a lateral photoconductive h-10BN detector structure with Ni/Au metal bilayer contacts deposited on two edges. The width of the material is 2.35 mm, and the gap between two electrodes on the top surface of the structure is 2 mm. (b) Measured dark currentmore » up to an applied bias voltage of 500 V. (c) Raman spectrum of a h-10BN epilayer. (d) Schematic of the time-of-flight (TOF) measurement setup employed in this study.« less

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