Progress with CVD Diamond Detectors for ICF Neutron Time-of-Flight Applications

Summary form only given. Synthetic polycrystalline diamonds produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are the leading candidates for neutron time-of-flight detectors at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The detectors based on CVD diamonds are fast and radiation hard. In the last year, significant progress was made on the 60-beam OMEGA laser system in the development of CVD diamond detectors for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) applications. Sensitivity and time response were measured on DT and DD implosions for CVD diamonds of different sizes and at different bias voltages. Characteristics of a CVD diamond detector hardened with a fluence of 10¹⁶ neutrons/cm² were also measured. Several different housings for the CVD diamonds were developed. The sensitivity of the CVD diamond detectors to hard X-rays, gamma rays and EMP noise was studied. Two CVD diamond detectors are now permanently installed on OMEGA and are used as neutron time-of-flight detectors for yield and ion temperature measurements in high-yield implosions. The implementation of the CVD diamond detectors on the NIF will be discussed.