A Theoretical examination of source back-scattering, self-absorption phenomena, and size evaluation in betavoltaic cells

Fathi, Hassan; Afarideh, Hossein; Abbasi Davani, Fereydoun; Amirmazlaghani, Mina

doi:10.22060/aest.2025.5790

A Theoretical examination of source back-scattering, self-absorption phenomena, and size evaluation in betavoltaic cells

Authors

Hassan Fathi ¹

Hossein Afarideh ¹

Fereydoun Abbasi Davani ²

Mina Amirmazlaghani ³

¹ Department of Energy Engineering and Physics, Amirkabir University of Technology, No. 350, Hafez Ave, Valiasr Square, Tehran 15875-4413, Iran

² Radiation Application Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Shahid Shahriari Square, Evin, Tehran 1983969411, Iran

³ Nano Electronics Lab (NEL), Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Shahid Shabanlou St., Lavizan, Tehran 16785-163, Iran

10.22060/aest.2025.5790

Abstract

The effect of source backscattering and self-absorption on the basic parameters of a ¹⁴⁷Pm₂O₃/Si planar betavoltaic devices is covered. Calculations show that self-absorption loss can reach up to 31.579% of the actual activity and overall efficiency can be reduced from 4.361% to 4.274%. If self-absorption and source backscattering are considered together it is observed that the source backscattering factor compensates to some extent the reduction of the actual activity induced by the self-absorption and ultimately, overall conversion efficiency can reach up to 4.352%. Also, as a case study lower bounds on the size of planar and spherical betavoltaic cells are reported. Further, the effect of parameters such as nominal source curie content, the total number of fuel atoms in the division’s volume, total power released by the source, the maximum energy of beta particles, and semiconductor density in the size of the nuclear battery was investigated.

Graphical Abstract