Graphene field effect transistor-based detectors for detection of ionizing radiation

We present the results of our recent efforts to develop novel ionizing radiation sensors based on the nanomaterial graphene. Graphene used in the field effect transistor architecture could be employed to detect the radiation-induced charge carriers produced in undoped semiconductor absorber substrates, even without the need for charge collection. The detection principle is based on the high sensitivity of graphene to ionization-induced local electric field perturbations in the electrically biased substrate. We experimentally demonstrated promising performance of graphene field effect transistors for detection of visible light, X-rays, gamma-rays, and alpha particles. We propose improved detector architectures which could result in a significant improvement of speed necessary for pulsed mode operation.