Materials World Collaborative Research: The effect of impurities and defects on the properties of B12As2 and their implications for its devices

Completed

Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fusion)
Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fission, Nuclear supporting technologies)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor M Kuball
Physics
University of Bristol

Standard

EPSRC

01 October 2010

30 September 2013

36 months

£1

Electronics

South West

Physical Sciences

Professor M Kuball, Physics, University of Bristol

Boron arsenide (B12As2), abbreviated here as IBA, is a rarely-studied material with two potentially invaluable properties, a thermal neutron capture cross-section that is orders of magnitude larger than most elements (for the boron-10 isotope), and an ability to self-heal radiation damage, i.e., a tremendous radiation hardness. This makes this material of great interest for neutron detectors, beta- and alphacells, and other applications in radiation harsh environments. Bristol, KSU and SUNY demonstrated to date, that it can be grown to good quality, and that working devices, e.g., p-IBA / n-SiC junctions, are possible, and survive initial radiation tests. This was achieved within a previous successful NSF-Materials Network research work between Bristol, KSU and SUNY, "NSF: An investigation into the properties of B12As2, B4C and their heterostructures" (EP/D075033/1), where we also demonstrated what is needed in terms of materials research to elevate IBA to real applications in the long-term: (i) the ability to grow IBA on novel 15R-SiC bulk substrates to achieve single-crystalline IBA growth, which however do not exist to date and will be developed within this project, and (ii) the ability to dope (n- and p-type) IBA to enable multi-functional devices. For this reason, this new materials proposal will result in large steps forward in new materials understanding and research of IBAs well beyond what has been achieved in our earlier joint research work. The international team is essential as knowledge and expertise needed for this research does not exist in a single country. With respect to the previous joint research work, the earlier team has been widened by adding a SiC growth development leader, IEMT/Poland, to this consortium, to enable research and access to novel SiC substrates for IBA growth which is essential for this project. Bristol would be funded by EPSRC, KSU and SUNY by NSF, and IEMT by the Polish funding agency. The ultimate impact of this research will be that we will be able to fabricate high quality custom doped IBA materials, as building blocks for future devices, as neutron detectors in space and border control / homeland security applications, for beta- and alphacells for heart pacemakers and even demonstrate intial device applications, i.e., there is large socio-economic impact of the materials research of the proposed work, for the UK, USA and Poland

08/11/11