Solution-Grown Rubrene Crystals as Radiation Detecting Devices

Journal Article · Wed Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2017 · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2017.2652139· OSTI ID:1373660

Carman, Leslie ^[1]; Martinez, H. Paul ^[1]; Voss, Lars ^[1]; Hunter, Steven ^[1]; Beck, Patrick ^[1]; Zaitseva, Natalia ^[1]; Payne, Stephen A. ^[1]; Irkhin, Pavel ^[2]; Choi, Hyun Ho ^[2]; Podzorov, Vitaly ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
2. Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)

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.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) (United States)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-07NA27344; DTRA10027-14474
• OSTI ID: 1373660
• Report Number(s): LLNL-JRNL-675862; TRN: US1702204
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 64, Issue 2; ISSN 0018-9499
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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