Semiconductor thermal neutron detectors are increasingly been used in in-core thermal neutron flux measurements in nuclear reactors. One limitation of these detectors is that they suffer from low detection efficiency. In this work, the maximum efficiency of a planar structure thermal neutron detector was determined using two widely used computer codes: Geant4 and MCNP6. Diamond and SiC are used as based materials in this work because of their large electron-hole pair production efficiency which generally translates to high detection efficiency. The electron-hole pair production efficiency is the fraction of energy that goes into electron-hole pair creation and depends on the band-gap energy and the W-values. These two materials are also not susceptible to radiation damage which makes them suitable for high radiation environments such as nuclear reactors. Thermal neutron detection is achieved using ¹⁰B and ⁶LiF conversion layers coated on the surface of the detector. The maximum efficiency for ¹⁰B conversion layer was achieved at a thickness of 2 $\mu$m. The efficiency at this thickness is 5.57 $\pm$ 0.09% and 5.49$\pm$0.09% for diamond and silicon carbide, respectively. When ⁶LiF was used as a thermal neutron conversion layer, the maximum thickness of the conversion layer was determined to occur at 17 $\mu$m. The efficiency at this thickness is 5.47 $\pm$0.06% and 5.38$\pm$0.06% for diamond and SiC, respectively.

半导体热中子探测器越来越多地用于核反应堆的堆芯热中子通量测量中。这些检测器的局限性在于它们的检测效率低。在这项工作中，使用两个广泛使用的计算机代码Geant4和MCNP6确定了平面结构热中子探测器的最大效率。金刚石和碳化硅由于其大的电子-空穴对生产效率而通常用作高检测效率，因此被用作基础材料。电子-空穴对的产生效率是进入电子-空穴对产生的能量的一部分，并且取决于带隙能量和W值。这两种材料也不易受到辐射损伤，因此使其适合于高辐射环境，例如核反应堆。使用以下方法实现热中子检测¹⁰ B和⁶ LiF转换层涂覆在检测器的表面。厚度为2时，实现了¹⁰ B转换层 的最大效率$\mu$米 在此厚度下的效率为5.57$\pm$ 0.09％和5.49$\pm$金刚石和碳化硅的含量分别为0.09％。当使用⁶ LiF作为热中子转换层时，转换层的最大厚度确定为出现在17 $\mu$米 该厚度下的效率为5.47$\pm$0.06％和5.38$\pm$金刚石和SiC分别为0.06％。