The Charge Collection Properties of CVD Diamond

TL;DR

This study investigates the charge collection efficiency of CVD diamond detectors using various ionising radiations, revealing dependence on ionisation type and potential for position-sensitive detection with relativistic particles.

Contribution

It provides detailed measurements of charge collection properties of CVD diamond with different radiation types, highlighting effects of polarisation and spatial efficiency variations.

Findings

Charge collection efficiency around 18% for photons and minimum ionising particles.

Significant decrease in signal over time for surface-absorbed particles due to polarisation.

Spatial variation in charge collection efficiency for protons.

Abstract

The charge collection properties of CVD diamond have been investigated with ionising radiation. In this study two CVD diamond samples, prepared with electrical contacts have been used as solid state ionisation chambers. The diamonds have been studied with beta particles and 10 keV photons, providing a homogeneous ionisation density and with protons and alpha particles which are absorbed in a thin surface layer. For the latter case a strong decrease of the signal as function of time is observed, which is attributed to polarisation effects inside the diamond. Spatially resolved measurements with protons show a large variation of the charge collection efficiency, whereas for photons and minimum ionising particles the response is much more uniform and in the order of 18%. These results indicate that the applicability of CVD diamond as a position sensitive particle detector depends on the ionisation type and appears to be promising for homogeneous ionisation densities as provided by relativistic charged particles.