Comparison of Fast Amplifiers for Diamond Detectors

TL;DR

This paper evaluates various commercial amplifiers for CVD diamond detectors, revealing none meet the desired low energy threshold and high timing resolution, with Cividec C6 being the best but still insufficient.

Contribution

The study provides a comparative analysis of commercial amplifiers for diamond detectors, highlighting current limitations and identifying the Cividec C6 as the most suitable option among tested devices.

Findings

None of the tested amplifiers meet the 100 keV threshold and 200 ps timing resolution.

Cividec C6 amplifier achieves 100 keV threshold but with 1.2 ns timing resolution.

The need for improved amplifier design for diamond detector applications.

Abstract

The development of Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) diamond detectors requests for novel signal amplifiers, capable to match the superb signal-to-noise ratio and timing response of these detectors. Existing amplifiers are still far away from this goal and are the dominant contributors to the overall system noise and the main source of degradation of the energy and timing resolution. We tested a number of commercial amplifiers designed for diamond detector readout to identify the best solution for a particular application. This application required a deposited energy threshold below 100 keV and timing resolution of the order of 200 ps at 200 keV. None of tested amplifiers satisfies these requirements. The best solution to such application found to be the Cividec C6 amplifier, which allows 100 keV minimal threshold, but its coincidence timing resolution at 200 keV is as large as 1.2 ns.