Advanced materials in radiation dosimetry

High band-gap semiconductor materials can represent good alternatives to silicon in relative dosimetry. Schottky diodes made with epitaxial n-type 4 H SiC and Chemical Vapor Deposited diamond films with ohmic contacts have been exposed to a 60Co γ-source, 20 MeV electrons and 6 MV X photons from a linear accelerator to test the current response in on-line configuration in the dose range 0.1–10 Gy. The released charge as a function of the dose and the radiation-induced current as a function of the dose-rate are found to be linear. No priming effects have been observed using epitaxial SiC, due to the low density of lattice defects present in this material.