Ionizing Radiation Total Dose Detectors Using Oligomer Organic Semiconductor Material and Devices

Abstract

Organic semiconducting oligomer – Pentacene, as a material and organic electronic devices based on it, are proposed here as total dose detectors for ionizing radiation. Pentacene, when exposed to ionizing radiation of γ – rays using Cobalt – 60 (60Co) radiation source, shows increase in the conductivity of the material which can be used as a sensing phenomenon for determining the dose of ionizing radiation. The change in material property was also verified using UV-visible (UV-VIS) spectrum for pentacene thin-films with rising absorption peaks at the oxidized positions in the wavelength. A pentacene resistor can be used as a detector, as the change in the conductivity of the pentacene film can be easily quantified by measuring the change in resistance of the pentacene resistor after different total radiation dose exposures. The experiments resulted in a sensitivity of 340 kΩ/Gy for a total 100 Gy radiation dose for the pentacene resistor. Furthermore, employing this simple electrical measurement technique for determining the dose of ionizing radiation and to improve the sensitivity of the sensor by transistor action, a pentacene based organic field effect transistor (OFET) was exposed to ionizing radiation. Change in OFF current (IOFF) of the OFET sensor with W/L = 19350 μm/100 μm, suggests a sensitivity of 21 nA/Gy for 100 Gy dose. Also, changes in various other parameters like threshold voltage, subthreshold swing, field effect mobility, number of interface states etc. can be extracted from the electrical characterizations which prove their usefulness as a detector for ionizing radiation.