Designs for thin-film-coated semiconductor thermal neutron detectors

Abstract

Thin film coated semiconductor detectors have been studied and used as neutron detectors for decades. Unfortunately, with front-irradiated devices, the basic design limits the thermal neutron detection efficiency to only 3.95% for /sup 10/B-coated devices and only 4.3% for /sup 6/LiF-coated devices. Presented in the following work are several straightforward methods to increase the thermal neutron detection efficiency for thin-film-coated semiconductor thermal neutron detectors.