Silicon carbide neutron detectors

Silicon carbide is a promising technology for semiconductor neutron detectors and radiation-hard electronics. Lancaster University is developing a thin silicon carbide neutron detector on a chip in conjunction with partners in Japan and the UK, for applications including decommissioning at Fukushima Daiichi. The detector on a chip will be extremely small (3 mm thick) and rad-hard for robotic deployment in harsh environments. This work requires the silicon carbide detector performance to be characterised by experiment and simulation; the present experiments at ISIS support that characterisation.