Development of a Tritium Powered Semiconductor Laser

Abstract

Tritium is a radioisotope that emits beta radiation on its decay with a half life exceeding twelve years. The average emitted beta particle energy is ~6 keV. Typically for a semiconductor with bandgap on the order of ~1-2 eV for example, one incident beta particle could result in the production of ~1000 electron-hole pairs in the semiconductor. Beta decay thus represents an interesting generation source for the design of semiconductor-based light sources requiring no external energy supply. In this work we study the luminescence mechanisms resulting from such excitation in materials from the GaInAsP alloy system.