Semiconductors are used in electronics, but are vulnerable to radiation Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images
A crystal that can resist incredibly high doses of radiation could be used to build durable electronics for space travel or nuclear reactors.
When particle radiation hits a semiconductor 鈥 the conductive materials used to make electronics聽鈥 it can knock atoms out of place, changing the material鈥檚 properties. This means that electronic devices in high radiation environments must聽be made more robust. One聽compound that has shown promise is gallium oxide, a semiconductor that can take five聽different crystalline forms.
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Now, at the University of Oslo in Norway and his colleagues have found that when two of gallium oxide鈥檚 crystal forms, called the beta and gamma phases, exist in the same material side by side, the combination can withstand extremely high doses of heavy ion聽radiation, which are highly energetic charged particles typically ejected from stars as cosmic rays.
鈥淲hat we discovered is really a new sort of material that tolerates unprecedented amounts of radiation damage,鈥 says Kuznetsov.
To make the crystal combination, the researchers separately fired heavy ions of nickel, gallium, gold and neon at gallium oxide in its beta聽phase, which pushed parts of聽it聽into the gamma phase. They continued until the crystal reached a聽stable mix of the two types.
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Kuznetsov and his team then increased the number of ions by hundreds of times. This took the radiation way beyond the level seen in nuclear reactors or cosmic rays, and there was no structural change.
Exactly why this happens is unclear, but Kuznetsov thinks it is related to the many different locations a displaced gallium atom can jump to within the crystal lattice without disturbing the overall structure.
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