Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Science and Production Association “Luch”, Podolsk, Russia:

A. A. Davydov, Leading Software Engineer
E. N. Fedorov, Head of Laboratory
A. A. Mokrushin, Head of Laboratory
A. V. Popkova, Senior Researcher, e-mail: popkova-alena@rambler.ru

Making beta-voltaic cells (nuclear batteries) is nowadays a promising line for developing a new generation of semiconductors. Improving characteristics of these cells requires development and use of new semiconducting materials and technologies of their manufacturing which should provide an effective ionizing radiation energy transformation, continuous operation life and manufacturability. It is proposed a polycrystalline semiconducting materials usage in order to provide stable characteristics of nuclear batteries during their service life. The distinctive feature of these materials in comparison with the high-ordered monocrystals is their less sensitivity to radiation-induced defects in the lattice, arising under the influence of ionizing radiation. Discussed are the prospects of polycrystalline semiconducting oxides usage for increasing efficiency of energy transformation in beta-voltaic cells under the prolonged exploitation conditions. It is shown that 63Ni may be simultaneously used as a radiation source and as a part of semiconductor converter based on the Schottky barrier junction or a rectifying heterostructure. It is suggested that the heterostructure with the required properties can be obtained when forming the TiO₂ – NiO successive layers on titanic substrate. An experimental sample of such structure has been obtained and an electronic microscopical analysis of the interface element composition has been implemented. Applicability of the proposed approaches to making the 63Ni-based beta-voltaic cells is shown.

This work was performed under the State assignment with financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for 2015–2016, agreement No. 14.625.21.0031 (the unique identifier of the applied scientific research (project) is RFMEFI62515X0031).

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