Development of nuclear microbattery prototype based on Schottky barrier diamond diodes
At a Glance
Section titled āAt a Glanceā| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2015-06-05 |
| Journal | physica status solidi (a) |
| Authors | Š. Š”. ŠŠ¾ŃŠ¼Š°ŃŠ¾Š², S. Yu. Troschiev, A. S. Volkov, Š”. Š. Š¢Š°ŃŠµŠ»ŠŗŠøŠ½, Eugeniy Korostylev |
| Institutions | National University of Science and Technology, Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials |
| Citations | 95 |
Abstract
Section titled āAbstractāWe designed, fabricated, and tested for the first time a prototype of nuclear micropower battery with an overall active area about 15 cm 2 consisted in 130 single cells based on Schottky barrier diamond diodes. Diodes selection for the battery assembly was performed on the basis of I - V curves measurements at electron beam irradiation in SEM. A typical energy conversion efficiency of each cell was about 4-6%. To characterize a battery prototype performance, we carried out photovoltaic measurements using different radioisotopes. Under irradiation by 63 Ni source with activity of 5 mCi cm ā2 , the output power density of 3 nW cm ā2 was obtained. Due to large energy loss of the emitted Ī² particles in source itself, the total battery efficiency was only 0.6%. However, with the longālived 63 Ni isotope, this already gives the battery specific energy of about 120 W Ā· hr/kg, comparable with the commercial chemical cells. During experiments with high activity 90 Sr- 90 Y source, no degradation was observed after 1,400 h of the radiation exposure. The maximum output power density of 2.4 ĀµW cm ā2 was achieved using 238 Pu Ī± source. The results display that synthetic diamond is a highly promising material for nuclear microbattery fabrication. A strategy to further cell optimization is also discussed.
Tech Support
Section titled āTech SupportāOriginal Source
Section titled āOriginal SourceāReferences
Section titled āReferencesā- 2002 - Polymers, Phosphors and Voltaics for Radioisotope Batteries