1211.2318 (Seyed Reza Mirfayzi)

$β$ Energy Loss Analysis in ${15}^P$: Application to Nuclear
Batteries    [PDF]

Seyed Reza Mirfayzi

Using radioactive nuclei for electricity generation in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) is important research as needs for longer life batteries increase. There are many applications developed in recent years, however there are limitations still to overcome before a final product can be produced. One of the important issue is the low power output. This research addresses this issue with a new method in fabrication for powering MEMS sensors. We have proposed to fabricate $^{63}Ni$ nano-particle $\beta^-$source in a glassy phosphorous type sphere which creates scintillation and phosphorescent photons. The micro-spheres will be doped in our semiconductor. Since $^{63}^Ni$ is a pure $\beta^-$ emitter, in this report the energy loss $dE/dx$ of $\beta^-$ in our scintillation material (phosphorus $^{15}P$) is modelled using C++ coding with GEANT4 and furthermore the particle distributions in two different source geometries (circular and square structure) is studied using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). We have shown the ${63}Ni$ $\beta$ energy spectrum absorption in ${15}^P$, where upto energy range 28keV had nearly 100% efficiency. The optimum thickness therefore was 800$\mu m$.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.2318