Nanowire betavoltaic nuclear battery

Betavoltaic设备使用高能电子(β粒子)在半导体中通过碰撞电离产生电子-空穴对，从而直接产生电能。Betavoltaics为纳瓦到微瓦的应用提供紧凑、长寿命和高能量密度的器件，如移动电子设备、植入式医疗设备和自主无线传感器网络。目前，Betavoltaics的实施受到相对较低的效率(&lt；10%)的限制。我们提出了用自辅助生长的方法在硅衬底上制备磷化镓(GaP)纳米线。GaP纳米线的高禁带宽度将提供约25%的高限制效率，并通过在廉价的硅衬底上生长来降低成本。Beta源(Ni-63)将被嵌入纳米线之间的空间，使用申请人最近开发的溶胶-凝胶旋转涂层技术。这样，贝塔光源将几乎完全被半导体材料包围，提高了对发射的贝塔粒子的捕获效率，并且只使用现有技术的一小部分半导体体积。

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.