Characterization of lithium indium diselenide

Lithium indium diselenide (
⁶
LiInSe2) has drawn interest in recent years as a thermal neutron detector due to its high volumetric thermal neutron detection efficiency. Enriched in
⁶
Li, the single crystalline semiconductor can reach thermal neutron detection efficiencies approaching 80% at thickness of 0.5 cm. With a Q-value of 4.78 MeV, the material also offers neutrongamma discrimination capabilities. Identification and implementation of a contact scheme that is both robust and reproducible is important for its commercial potential. Thorough testing of a myriad of contact schemes yielded a viable Ohmic contact with sufficient adhesion to endure gold wire wedge bonding. Furthermore, characterization of the semiconducting properties, such as the charge carrier mobility-lifetime constant of this material as a radiation detector is important to identify the application space of this material. Using the single charge carrier approximation to the Hecht relation, the electron mobility-lifetime product was found to be on the order of 3.8–90 cm
²
/V with a mean ionization energy of 400 eV/e-h pair.