The neutron detector most widely used today is the pressurized 3He tube, which was designed in the 1970s. Given its high cost, these gas-filled tubes cannot be used in large area arrays. Thermal neutron imaging using two-dimensional arrays are desirable for a wide range of applications such as real-time imaging in security and health sectors. There are essentially four elements suitable for solid-state (or bulk) thermal neutron detectors (B, Cd, Gd and Li), but all of them are difficult to produce at low temperature. 10B is particularly interesting because of its larger thermal neutron absorption cross section. When a thermal neutron is captured by 10B charged particles with energies greater than 1MeV are generated. In this research, a hybrid perovskite material (e.g. CH3NH3PbI3) doped with boron is demonstrated as a neutron detector. Both simulation as well as experimental results show that perovskite can be used as the active sensing element for thermal neutrons. In particular, we present a strategy to prepare different perovskite single crystals using inverse temperature crystallization technique (ITC) and its integration into neutron sensing diode structures. The figure below shows a schematic of our detector where the perovskite material is CH3NH3PbBr3, CH3NH3PbI3 and their B-doped derivatives. The incorporation of B into the crystal lattice was confirmed by the EDX, XPS, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction.

Boron containing perovskite single crystal for thermal neutron detection

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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