Abstract As a newest family member of the III-nitrides, BN is considered amongst the remaining frontiers in wide energy bandgap semiconductors with potentials for technologically significant applications in deep UV (DUV) optoelectronics, solid-state neutron detectors, electron emitters, single photon emitters, switching/memory devices, and super-capacitors. It was shown that it is possible to produce h-BN epilayers with high hexagonal phase purity, UV transparency, and film stoichiometry by employing nitrogen-rich growth conditions. The quasi-2D nature of h- BN supports unusually strong optical transitions near the band edge and a large exciton binding energy on the order of 0.7 ​eV. Due to the fact that the isotope of B-10 has a large capture cross-section for thermal neutrons, h-BN is an ideal material for the fabrication of solid-state neutron detectors for special nuclear materials detection, well and geothermal logging, and medical imaging applications. Freestanding B-10 enriched h-BN (h-10BN) epilayers with varying thicknesses up to 200 ​μm have been successfully synthesized by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) as of this writing. By utilizing the conductivity anisotropy nature of h-BN, 1 ​cm2 lateral detectors fabricated from 100 ​μm thick h-10BN epilayers have demonstrated a detection efficiency of 59% for thermal neutrons, which is the highest on record among all solid-state neutron detectors as of today. It was noted that high growth temperatures, long growth times and the use of sapphire substrate tend to incorporate oxygen related impurities into h-10BN epilayers, which strongly impacted the carrier mobility-lifetime (μτ) products and charge collection efficiencies of h-10BN neutron detectors. As the h-BN material technology further develops, improved carrier mobilities and μτ products will allow the fabrication of h-BN devices with enhanced performance.

中文翻译：

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六方氮化硼：外延生长和器件应用

摘要 作为 III 族氮化物的最新家族成员，BN 被认为是宽能带隙半导体的剩余前沿之一，在深紫外 (DUV) 光电子学、固态中子探测器、电子发射器、单光子发射器等技术上具有重要的应用潜力。 、开关/存储设备和超级电容器。结果表明，通过采用富氮生长条件，可以生产具有高六方相纯度、紫外线透明度和薄膜化学计量的 h-BN 外延层。h-BN 的准二维性质支持带边缘附近异常强的光学跃迁和 0.7 eV 量级的大激子结合能。由于 B-10 的同位素对热中子具有很大的俘获截面，h-BN 是制造用于特殊核材料检测、井和地热测井以及医学成像应用的固态中子探测器的理想材料。截至撰写本文时，已通过金属有机化学气相沉积 (MOCVD) 成功合成了厚度高达 200 μm 的独立式富含 B-10 的 h-BN (h-10BN) 外延层。通过利用 h-BN 的电导率各向异性，由 100 μm 厚 h-10BN 外延层制成的 1 cm2 横向探测器对热中子的探测效率为 59%，这是所有固态中子中最高的记录截至今天的探测器。注意到高生长温度、长生长时间和蓝宝石衬底的使用倾向于将与氧相关的杂质结合到 h-10BN 外延层中，这强烈影响了 h-10BN 中子探测器的载流子迁移率寿命 (μτ) 乘积和电荷收集效率。随着 h-BN 材料技术的进一步发展，改进的载流子迁移率和 μτ 产物将允许制造具有增强性能的 h-BN 器件。