Characterization of a boron carbide-based polymer neutron sensor

Boron is used widely in thin-film solid-state devices for neutron detection. The film thickness and boron concentration are important parameters that relate to a device׳s detection efficiency and capacitance. Neutron depth profiling was used to determine the film thicknesses and boron-concentration profiles of boron carbide-based polymers grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of ortho-carborane (1,2-B10C2H12), resulting in a pure boron carbide film, or of meta-carborane (1,7-B10C2H12) and pyridine (C5H5N), resulting in a pyridine composite film, or of pyrimidine (C4H4N2) resulting in a pure pyrimidine film. The pure boron carbide film had a uniform surface appearance and a constant thickness of 250 nm, whereas the thickness of the composite film was 250-350 nm, measured at three different locations. In the meta-carborane and pyridine composite film the boron concentration was found to increase with depth, which correlated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)-derived atomic ratios. A proton peak from 14N (n,p)14C reaction was observed in the pure pyrimidine film, indicating an additional neutron sensitivity to nonthermal neutrons from the N atoms in the pyrimidine.