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Stability of (B4C)-B-10 thin films under neutron radiation

Höglund, Carina LU ; Zeitelhack, Karl ; Kudejova, Petra ; Jensen, Jens ; Greczynski, Grzegorz ; Lu, Jun ; Hultman, Lars ; Birch, Jens and Hall-Wilton, Richard LU (2015) In Radiation Physics and Chemistry 113. p.14-19
Abstract
Thin films of (B4C)-B-10 have shown to be very suitable as neutron-converting material in the next generation of neutron detectors, replacing the previous predominantly used He-3. In this contribution we show under realistic conditions that (B4C)-B-10 films are not damaged by the neutron irradiation and interactions, which they will be exposed to under many years in a neutron detector. 1 mu m thick (B4C)-B-10 thin films were deposited onto Al or Si substrates using dc magnetron sputtering. As-deposited films were exposed to a cold neutron beam with fluences of up to 1.1 x 10(14) cm(-2) and a mean wavelength of 6.9 angstrom. Both irradiated and as-deposited reference samples were characterized with time-of-flight elastic recoil detection... (More)
Thin films of (B4C)-B-10 have shown to be very suitable as neutron-converting material in the next generation of neutron detectors, replacing the previous predominantly used He-3. In this contribution we show under realistic conditions that (B4C)-B-10 films are not damaged by the neutron irradiation and interactions, which they will be exposed to under many years in a neutron detector. 1 mu m thick (B4C)-B-10 thin films were deposited onto Al or Si substrates using dc magnetron sputtering. As-deposited films were exposed to a cold neutron beam with fluences of up to 1.1 x 10(14) cm(-2) and a mean wavelength of 6.9 angstrom. Both irradiated and as-deposited reference samples were characterized with time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. We show that only 1.8 ppm of the B-10 atoms were consumed and that the film composition does not change by the neutron interaction within the measurement accuracy. The irradiation does not deteriorate the film adhesion and there is no indication that it results in increased residual stress values of the as-deposited films of 0.095 GPa. From what is visible with the naked eye and down to atomic level studies, no change from the irradiation could be found using the above-mentioned characterization techniques. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Neutron, Radiation damage, Thin film, (B4C)-B-10, Neutron detection
in
Radiation Physics and Chemistry
volume
113
pages
14 - 19
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000356196600003
  • scopus:84928320253
ISSN
0969-806X
DOI
10.1016/j.radphyschem.2015.04.006
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7e80d375-1f5f-4745-a9b2-f077dff8a9c2 (old id 7596695)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:42:16
date last changed
2022-04-14 19:18:01
@article{7e80d375-1f5f-4745-a9b2-f077dff8a9c2,
  abstract     = {{Thin films of (B4C)-B-10 have shown to be very suitable as neutron-converting material in the next generation of neutron detectors, replacing the previous predominantly used He-3. In this contribution we show under realistic conditions that (B4C)-B-10 films are not damaged by the neutron irradiation and interactions, which they will be exposed to under many years in a neutron detector. 1 mu m thick (B4C)-B-10 thin films were deposited onto Al or Si substrates using dc magnetron sputtering. As-deposited films were exposed to a cold neutron beam with fluences of up to 1.1 x 10(14) cm(-2) and a mean wavelength of 6.9 angstrom. Both irradiated and as-deposited reference samples were characterized with time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. We show that only 1.8 ppm of the B-10 atoms were consumed and that the film composition does not change by the neutron interaction within the measurement accuracy. The irradiation does not deteriorate the film adhesion and there is no indication that it results in increased residual stress values of the as-deposited films of 0.095 GPa. From what is visible with the naked eye and down to atomic level studies, no change from the irradiation could be found using the above-mentioned characterization techniques. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).}},
  author       = {{Höglund, Carina and Zeitelhack, Karl and Kudejova, Petra and Jensen, Jens and Greczynski, Grzegorz and Lu, Jun and Hultman, Lars and Birch, Jens and Hall-Wilton, Richard}},
  issn         = {{0969-806X}},
  keywords     = {{Neutron; Radiation damage; Thin film; (B4C)-B-10; Neutron detection}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{14--19}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Radiation Physics and Chemistry}},
  title        = {{Stability of (B4C)-B-10 thin films under neutron radiation}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2015.04.006}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.radphyschem.2015.04.006}},
  volume       = {{113}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}