Our latest research article has been published in the Physical Review Applied journal (by the American Physical Society). The work was carried out in collaboration with the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics (Łukasiewicz-IMiF) and the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ). In this study, we investigate the radiation resistance of graphene–SiC heterostructures, providing new insights into how material dimensionality influences defect formation under neutron irradiation.
In the article “Radiation-Induced Defect Dynamics in 2D/3D Systems: A Dimensionality Advantage Preserved within Patterned Graphene–SiC Heterostructures” we demonstrate that graphene retains its exceptional radiation resistance even when integrated into realistic heterostructures based on three-dimensional silicon carbide substrates. Our experiments revealed that radiation-induced damage accumulates 69 to 273 times more slowly in graphene than in SiC. Moreover, at high neutron fluences, defect accumulation in graphene reaches an early saturation stage, indicating that the intrinsic advantage of two-dimensional materials over conventional three-dimensional crystals is preserved in practical electronic device architectures.
We also propose a new model describing defect accumulation in two-dimensional materials. According to this concept, the radiation response results from the interplay of two parallel mechanisms: processes occurring at the heterostructure interface and direct lattice damage caused by atomic displacements. Our findings show that the reduced dimensionality of 2D materials plays a fundamental role in their remarkable radiation tolerance. Beyond their significance for fundamental materials science, our results have important implications for the development of next-generation electronic devices designed to operate in high-radiation environments, including fusion and fission reactors, particle accelerators, and space technologies. They demonstrate that incorporating two-dimensional materials into device architectures can provide orders-of-magnitude improvements in structural stability under extreme irradiation conditions. This publication represents another successful outcome of our collaboration with Łukasiewicz-IMiF and NCBJ, advancing research on two-dimensional materials for electronic devices intended to operate in harsh environments.
The full Open Access article is available here >>> HERE <<<
