Diamond film optical X-ray and particle detectors

Synthetic diamond film diodes have been fabricated and tested with electromagnetic and particle radiation (above and below bandgap). It is shown that drifted ionization properties and yields in synthetic diamond film diodes within a factor of 2-4 of predicted values are achievable with minimal effort in films with thicknesses less than 50 μ. Potential diamond film applications in high-energy and nuclear physics are briefly described. It is concluded that, while synthetic high-resistivity diamond film ionization detector technology has interesting features for calorimetry and tracking radiation hardness and readout speed, it also carries a high cost per area (at present) and has modest predicted calorimetric performance, relative to other techniques, based on low electron yields