Radiation Response of Group-IV and III-V Semiconductors Subjected to D–D and D–T Fusion Neutrons

Abstract

This work focuses on the radiation response of Group IV (Si, Ge, SiC, diamond) and III-V (GaAs, GaN, GaP, GaSb, InAs, InP, InSb, AlAs) semiconductors subjected to D–D (2.45 MeV) and D–T (14 MeV) neutrons. The response of each material has been systematically investigated through a direct calculation using nuclear cross-section libraries, MCNP6, and Geant4 numerical simulations. For the semiconductor materials considered, we have investigated in detail the reaction rates per type of reaction (elastic, inelastic, and nonelastic) and proposed an exhaustive classification and counting of all the neutron-induced events and secondary products as a function of their nature and energy. Several metrics for quantifying the susceptibility of the related semiconductor-based electronics to neutron fusions have been finally considered and discussed.

Effect of Neutron Irradiation on the Electronic and Optical Properties of AlGaAs/InGaAs-Based Quantum Well Structures

“…~10 16 cm −2 , due to the formation of high density defect states [21][22][23][24]. The photoconductivity spectra taken on the fast-neutron-irradiated samples of GaAs show the appearance of optical transitions between the deep energy levels and either the valence or the conduction band lying at approximately 0.2 and 0.7 eV above the valence band and 0.5 eV below the conduction band [25].…”

“…Within the scope of current research endeavors, calculations of reaction rates and the classification of secondary elements and particles are actively conducted utilizing the Geant4 software environment and Jendl cross-section libraries [16][17][18][19]. These refined analytical methods enable us to delve deeper into the impact of the neutron flux on semiconductors, refining the dynamics of reactions under various conditions.…”

New Advances in Semiconductors

“…This last category includes, of course, all recoil nuclei produced in elastic and inelastic reactions but also ions produced in certain nonelastic reactions, for example, in the (n,n'γ) or (n,2n'γ) reactions that are increasingly frequent when increasing the atomic number of the target element. These nonelastic reactions give a final nucleus with a lighter mass with respect to the initial impacted nucleus (for example, 74 Ge(n,2n) 73 Ge or 115 In(n,2n) 113 In, etc. ).…”

Comparative Radiation Response of GaN and Ga2O3 Exposed to Ground-Level Neutrons

“…The effects of neutron irradiation on bulk GaN or Ga 2 O 3 at the material level (i.e., not integrated Crystals 2024, 14, 128 2 of 12 into electronic devices) have been studied only to a limited extent. We can cite previous studies [15,17,26,27] that have investigated the susceptibility of several materials from the group IV or III-V compound materials, including GaN. However, these studies have limitations with respect to (i) the energy of the incoming neutrons, because the study in [27] simulates only neutrons issued from deuterium-deuterium or deuterium-tritium fusion reactions (i.e., monoenergetic neutrons with energies of 2.45 MeV and 14 MeV), and the other studies [15,17,26] include only the high-energy neutron part of the neutron spectrum at ground level; (ii) the energy of the secondary particles resulting from the interactions of atmospheric neutrons with the material (due to a limiting energy threshold, which is considered in [26]); and (iii) the event statistics in [26], because a relatively small number of incoming neutrons affect the simulation results.…”