As the EUROfusion consortium communicates its transition from operating the science-driven ITER reactor to the industry-driven DEMO-class reactors, so evolve requirements for the liability, neutron radiation resistance, and accuracy of high-temperature magnetic diagnostics and plasma control systems.
Łukasiewicz - IMiF has introduced a new brand to answer these challenges [1]. GET®, or Graphene Epitaxy Technologies, offers an innovative graphene-based sensory platform for magnetic field detection [2-5]. The platform takes advantage of transfer-free p-type in-situ hydrogen-intercalated quasi-free-standing graphene epitaxially grown on semi-insulating on-axis SiC using the CVD method [6-9]. It is protected against environmental conditions by amorphous atomic-layer-deposited aluminum oxide passivation, synthesized from trimethylaluminum and deionized water at 770 K [10-11].
The sensors come in two variants. The one on vanadium-compensated on-axis 6H-SiC(0001) offers current-mode sensitivity of 140 V/AT up to 573 K, the other on high-purity on-axis 4H-SiC(0001) offers 80 V/AT but up to 770 K. The sensitivity and thermal range of operation are already superior to the traditional technology of thin-film metallic layers based on Bi, Cr, Au, Mo, Ta, or Cu.
The 4H-SiC device performance is further boosted by pre-epitaxial ion implantation that reconstructs the SiC defect structure and eliminates deep electron traps related to silicon vacancies. The modification suppresses the thermal build-up of a detrimental electron channel and improves the stability, linearity, and reproducibility of the sensor sensitivity curves [12].
The platform is greatly resistant to fast-neutron radiation of a fluence of 6.6 × 1017 cm-2 and possesses a self-healing property [13]. Further to this, the self-healing effect exhibits a fluence and thermal threshold, suggesting that the demanding conditions of the tokamak may prove in favor of the platform.
[1] www.graphene2get.com.
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