Temperature effect of a radioluminescent nuclear battery based on (147)Pm/ZnS:Cu/GaAs

Xiao-Bin Tang; Liang Hong; Zhi-Heng Xu; Yun-Peng Liu; Da Chen

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2014.12.021

Temperature effect of a radioluminescent nuclear battery based on (147)Pm/ZnS:Cu/GaAs

Appl Radiat Isot. 2015 Mar:97:118-124. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2014.12.021. Epub 2014 Dec 24.

Authors

Xiao-Bin Tang¹, Liang Hong², Zhi-Heng Xu², Yun-Peng Liu², Da Chen²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Material and Technology for Energy Conversion, China. Electronic address: tangxiaobin@nuaa.edu.cn.
² Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Material and Technology for Energy Conversion, China.

PMID: 25569201
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2014.12.021

Abstract

A radioluminescent nuclear battery was fabricated and the performance was measured and calculated at temperature of 223.15-323.15K. Experimental and theoretical results indicate that Jsc minimally decreases with the increase in temperature, whereas Voc linearly decreases. Pmax rapidly decreases with temperature. The mechanism of temperature effect is discussed using the temperature dependency of semiconductor parameters. This study significantly guides the selection of batteries' power source under various temperature. The nuclear battery may also be used as a long-life temperature transducer.

Keywords: Equivalent circuit; Nuclear battery; Radioluminescence effect; Temperature effect.