Theoretical prediction of output performance of 63NiO-Si heterojunction betavoltaic cell.

For the ⁶³NiO-Si heterojunction betavoltaic nuclear battery, the energy deposition of the energy conversion material itself was simulated by Monte Carlo simulation, and the structure of the ⁶³NiO-Si heterojunction was optimized based on the theoretical calculation results. When the thickness of ⁶³NiO is 4 μm and the doping concentration of Si is 1 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻³, the short-circuit current density, open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and maximum output power density of the nuclear battery are 1.22 μA · cm⁻², 3.17 V, 0.95, 3.67 μW · cm⁻². In addition, the output performance of ⁶³Ni/NiO-Si heterojunction betavoltaic nuclear cell was calculated in this study. Under the condition that the activity of the radioactive source and the thickness of NiO(⁶³NiO) are the same in the two structures, the proposed structure (⁶³NiO-Si) has greatly improved the output performance of the nuclear battery by reducing the energy lost from radioactive source self-absorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]