A novel radiation detector based on Gd2O3 doped organic semiconductor for the detection of γ and β-particles

A radiation detector that consists of a conducting polymer derived from an organic semiconductor material was developed. The motivation behind this study was to reduce the detector costs and to find a suitable alternative to large inorganic semiconductor detectors, which are difficult to fabricate. Herein, we report an unprecedented effort made to detect γ-particles using organic semiconductor, polyaniline, sensors. In addition, the novel organic semiconductor sensors also exhibited improved detection of β-particles compared with other conventional sensors. The material density of the sensor was increased to enhance the detection sensitivity. We focused on materials with high electron density and improved the γ and β-particle sensitivity by doping the material with gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3). When the Gd2O3 doped material was used in a hybrid organic–inorganic radiation detector, the detection sensitivity of the detector improved for γ-particles ejected from a 60Co source. Further, an attempt was made to fabricate sensors with improved β-particle sensitivity by adopting several approaches, including doping Gd2O3, using polyaniline with fine-tuned oxidation states, and modifying electrode designs. The target detector efficiency of 20% was achieved in the environment of a university laboratory, which is necessary to commercialize the organic radiation sensor.