
Joshua B. 2025 | BASIS Independent Silicon Valley
- Project Title: Effects of Alpha Particle Irradiation on Graphene Oxide with Applications to MEMS Alpha Radiation Detectors
- BASIS Independent Advisor: Dr. Noble
- Internship Location: UC Berkeley, Fine Lab
- Onsite Mentor: Dr. Dragoslav Grbovic, Professor of Physics, Naval Post Graduate School
The goal of this project is to determine the effect of alpha radiation on Graphene Oxide in order to design a MEMS alpha radiation detector. Typically, the detection of high-energy particles and ionizing radiation has been carried out with detectors that contain gases as the detecting medium. These detectors tend to be quite bulky, expensive, and difficult to mass produce because the necessary glass tubes full of gas are delicate components. As a result, for many applications that require cheap, small, and disposal alpha radiation detectors, including environmental monitoring, biomedical technologies, and nuclear reactors, MEMS alpha radiation detectors with Graphene Oxide as the detecting medium would be more effective. This project will be conducted in two phases. The first step is to identify the effect different doses of alpha radiation have on Graphene Oxide samples, measuring the changes in the samples’ structural, chemical, and electromagnetic properties using various methods (Raman Spectroscopy, FT-IR, and XRD). The expected result based on previous research conducted is that alpha radiation will cause structural changes in Graphene Oxide, such as a reduction in the intensity of oxygen functional groups bonded to the carbon lattice or decreased d-spacing between layers. The second step of the project is to use this change in the properties of Graphene Oxide after exposure to alpha radiation to design a prototype of a MEMS alpha radiation detector. Similar MEMS detectors developed for gamma and neutron radiation have used carbon and boron-nitride nanotubes and novel printed-electronics techniques.