The all boron carbide diode neutron detector: Comparison with theory

A boron carbide diode detector, fabricated from two different polytypes of semiconducting boron carbide, will detect neutrons in reasonable agreement with theory. Small deviations from the model calculations occur due to the detection efficiencies of the 10B capture products Li plus α sum signal differing somewhat from expectation in the thin diodes. The performance of the all boron carbide neutron detector does depart from the behavior of devices where a boron rich neutron capture layer is distinct from the diode charge collection region (i.e. a conversion layer solid state detector), as is expected.