Semiconductor neutron detectors using depleted uranium oxide

Modified Tauc–Lorentz dispersion model leading to a more accurate representation of absorption features below the bandgap

“…Uranium oxides (UO x ) are not only used in nuclear industry but due to their interesting electronic and electro-optical properties have been studied for other potential applications which include manufacturing of highly reflective multilayer mirrors for the extreme ultraviolet region, photo-anodes in photoelectrochemical cells for solar-assisted hydrogen production, efficient solar cells and fabrication of certain active electronic devices (a Schottky diode and a bipolar p-n-p transistor) [87][88][89]. The optical properties of the uranium oxide films deposited by magnetron sputtering were determined over different spectral ranges by spectroscopic ellipsometry in Refs.…”

Band-to-band transitions and critical points in the near-infrared to vacuum ultraviolet dielectric functions of single crystal urania and thoria

“…https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5087059 Uranium dioxide (urania), UO 2 , and thorium dioxide (thoria), ThO 2 , have garnered interest recently as semiconductors suitable for neutron detection. 1,2 Present knowledge of the electronic and optical properties of ThO 2 is scarce. Knowledge for UO 2 is also not exhaustive.…”

Interband Transitions And Critical Points Of Single Crystal Thoria Compared To Urania

“…An accurate quantitative description of the optical spectra requires theory beyond the independent particle picture, yet qualitative agreement between theory and experiment can often be obtained on the level of DFT [7]. While the optical adsorption and reflectance spectra of semiconductors have been studied for several decades, similar work on actinide dioxides has been hampered by the absence of high quality single crystals [8,9].…”