Neutron Irradiation Effects on Boron Nitride-Based Ceramics for Use in X-ray Detection

Abstract

X-ray detectors based on conventional semiconductors with large atomic numbers are suffering from the poor stability under a high dose rate of ionizing irradiation. In this work, we demonstrate that a wide band gap ceramic–boron nitride with small atomic numbers could be used for sensitive X-ray detection. Boron nitride samples showed excellent resistance to ionizing radiation, which have been systematically studied with the neutron- and electron-aging experiments. Then, we fully analyzed the influence of these aging effects on the fundamental properties of boron nitride. Interestingly, we found that the boron nitride samples could maintain relatively good charge transport properties even after large dose of neutron irradiation. The fabricated X-ray detectors showed decent performance metrics, and the neutron-aged boron nitride even showed improved operational stability under continuous X-ray irradiation, suggesting the great potential for real applications.