Leakage current measurements of a pixelated polycrystalline CVD diamond detector

Abstract

Diamond has several desirable features when used as a material for radiation detection. With the invention of synthetic growth techniques, it has become feasible to look at developing diamond radiation detectors with reasonable surface areas. Polycrystalline diamond has been grown using a chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique by the University of Augsburg and detector structures fabricated at the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC) in the University of Glasgow in order to produce pixelated detector arrays. The anode and cathode contacts are realised by depositing gold to produce ohmic contacts. Measurements of I-V characteristics were performed to study the material uniformity. The bias voltage is stepped from -1000 V to 1000V to investigate the variation of leakage current from pixel to pixel. Bulk leakage current is measured to be less than 1nA.