Semiconductors are used in electronic devices, but they are vulnerable to radiation.
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Crystals that can withstand incredibly high doses of radiation could potentially be used to build durable electronics for space travel and nuclear reactors.
When particle radiation hits semiconductors (conductive materials used in the manufacture of electronic devices), atoms can be dislodged from their positions, changing the material’s properties. This means that electronics must be made more robust in high radiation environments. One promising compound is gallium oxide, a semiconductor that can take five different crystal forms.
Now, Andrej Kuznetsov of the University of Oslo, Norway, and his colleagues have shown that when two crystalline forms of gallium oxide, called the beta and gamma phases, exist side by side in the same material, the combination leads to very high doses of deuterium. I have found that it can be tolerated. Ionic radiation is usually high-energy charged particles emitted as cosmic rays from stars.
“What we have discovered is a completely new class of materials that can withstand unprecedented amounts of radiation damage,” says Kuznetsov.
To create the crystalline combination, the researchers fired heavy ions of nickel, gallium, gold, and neon separately into the beta-phase gallium oxide, pushing some of it into the gamma phase. They continued until the crystals reached a stable mixture of the two types.
Kuznetsov and his team then increased the number of ions hundreds of times. This produced radiation levels well in excess of those found in nuclear reactors and cosmic rays, and caused no structural changes.
The exact reason is unknown, but Kuznetsov believes it has to do with the many different places the displaced gallium atoms can jump within the crystal lattice without disturbing the overall structure.
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