Development of high temperature, radiation hard detectors based on diamond

Abstract

Single crystal CVD diamond has many desirable properties compared to current, well developed, detector materials; exceptional radiation, chemical and physical hardness, chemical inertness, low Z (close to human tissue, good for dosimetry), wide bandgap and an intrinsic pathway to fast neutron detection through the 12 C(n,α) 9 Be reaction. However effective exploitation of these properties requires development of a suitable metallisation scheme to give stable contacts for high temperature applications. To best utilise available processing techniques to optimise sensor response through geometry and conversion media configurations, a reliable model is required. This must assess the performance in terms of spectral response and overall efficiency as a function of detector and converter geometry. The same is also required for proper interpretation of experimental data. Sensors have been fabricated with varying metallisation schemes indented to permit high temperature operation; Present test results indicate that viable fabrication schemes for high temperature contacts have been developed and present modelling results, supported by preliminary data from partners indicate simulations provide a useful representation of response.

Diamond based detectors for high temperature, high radiation environments

“…Recent work on this has focussed on the development of diamond detectors with suitable metallisation that will survive the required operating temperatures (200-250 • C) without degradation. Previously [1] we have modelled the detector response, with a particular interest in the use of conversion media to improve thermal neutron detection, with complex geometries and have also tested diamond based sensors up to 100 • C where only a minimal change in response was observed. Here we have produced diamond sensors based on a similar metallisation scheme, packaged to allow higher temperature operation and tested them up to our design goal of 250 • C. These sensors and our alpha source have been modelled using the fully integrated radiation transport packages FLUKA2011 [2,3] and MCNP6 [4].…”

Properties of Diamond-Based Neutron Detectors Operated in Harsh Environments

“…Studies of diamond detectors operating at HT date back to the beginning of the 2000s when the first artificial SCD films become available and are still ongoing [128,153,154,[195][196][197][198][199][200][201][202]202] reports on the irradiation at HT using protons. Usually, the detectors are studied while operating in pulse (spectrometric) mode, and PHS are recorded versus temperature to measure the variation of the detector performances (CCE, energy resolution at FWHM, peak centroid, and area).…”

Pure organic TPB single crystal for direct X-ray detection

“…[7][8][9] As scintillators, the cheap production cost and fast decay time (a few ns) of organic single crystals provide more possibilities for their application. 10 Common organic single crystal semiconductors include rubrene, 11 4-hydroxycyanobenzene (4HCB), 12,13 1,5-dinitronaphthalene (DNN), 11 1,8-naphthaleneimide (NTI), 12 and TIPS-pentacene. 14 Among them, 4HCB single crystals show the most outstanding performance.…”

“…7–9 As scintillators, the cheap production cost and fast decay time (a few ns) of organic single crystals provide more possibilities for their application. 10…”