Nanowire betavoltaic nuclear battery

贝塔伏打装置利用高能电子（贝塔粒子）在半导体中通过撞击电离产生电子-空穴对，从而直接产生电能。Betavoltaics为移动电子设备、植入式医疗设备和自主无线传感器网络等毫瓦级到微瓦级应用提供紧凑、长寿命和高能量密度的设备。目前，betavoltaic的实施受到其相对较低的效率（<10%）的限制。我们提出用自辅助生长法在硅衬底上制备磷化镓纳米线。高带隙的GaP纳米线将提供约25%的高极限效率，并通过在廉价的Si衬底上生长而降低成本。β源（Ni-63）将使用申请人最近开发的溶胶-凝胶旋转涂层技术嵌入纳米线之间的空间。通过这种方式，β源将几乎完全被半导体材料包围，提高发射β粒子的捕获效率，并且只使用现有技术半导体体积的一小部分。

Betavoltaic devices use energetic electrons (beta particles) to create electron-hole pairs in a semiconductor byimpact ionization for direct generation of electrical power. Betavoltaics provide compact, long-life, and highenergy density devices for nanowatt to microwatt applications such as mobile electronic devices, implantablemedical devices, and autonomous wireless sensor networks. The implementation of betavoltaics is presentlylimited by their relatively low efficiency (<10%). We propose to fabricate gallium phosphide (GaP) nanowireson Si substrates by the self-assisted growth method. The high bandgap of GaP nanowires will offer a highlimiting efficiency of about 25% and a reduced cost by growth on inexpensive Si substrates. The beta source(Ni-63) will be embedded in the space between nanowires, using a sol-gel spin-coating technique recentlydeveloped by the applicant. In this way, the beta source will be nearly completely surrounded by semiconductormaterial, improving the capture efficiency of emitted beta particles and using only a fraction of thesemiconductor volume of existing technology.