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Lookup NU author(s): Nurul Mohamed, Professor Nick Wright, Dr Alton Horsfall
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by IEEE, 2017.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
The outstanding material properties make silicon carbide radiation hard and this ability has enabled it to be demonstrated in a range of detector structures for deployment in extreme environments, including those where the ability to tolerate high radiation dose is imperative. This includes applications in space and nuclear environments, where the ability to detect highly energetic radiation is important. In contrast, detectors used in medical treatment, such as imaging and radiotherapy, uses a range of radiation dose rates and energies for both particulate and photonic radiation. Here, we report the response and dose rate linearity of detectors fabricated from silicon carbide to dose rates in the range of 0.185 mGy.min−1, typical of those used for medical imaging. The data show that the radiation detected current originates within the depletion region of the detector and that the response is linearly dependent on the volume of the space charge region. The realization of a vertical detector structure, coupled with the high quality of epitaxial layers, has resulted in a high dose sensitivity of the detector that is highly linear. The temperature dependence of the characteristics indicate that silicon carbide Schottky diode based detectors offer a performance suitable for medical applications at temperatures below 100 ◦C without the need for external cooling.
Author(s): Mohamed NS, Wright NG, Horsfall AB
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Year: 2017
Volume: 64
Issue: 7
Pages: 1912-1919
Print publication date: 01/07/2017
Online publication date: 18/05/2017
Acceptance date: 11/05/2017
Date deposited: 16/05/2017
ISSN (print): 0018-9499
ISSN (electronic): 1558-1578
Publisher: IEEE
URL: https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2017.2705519
DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2017.2705519
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